Performance and efficiency through functionally enhanced structures

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The long-term goal of this program is to create new concepts for multifunctional aerospace structures which improve the performance and efficiency of transportation vehicles, using analytical modeling supported by experimental validation and finite element simulation. To achieve these goals, weight efficient structures are to be combined with advanced functional elements to produce integrated packages which provide, in a single component, both structural strength and stiffness and other capabilities such as cooling, energy harvest or shape adaptation. Key challenges are the creation of ultra lightweight structural systems which are amenable to the insertion of functional systems; and the identification and analysis of the physical phenomena relevant to the operation of a multifunctional system.