SBIR Phase I: MetaMaterial for Seismic Energy Absorption

这个小企业创新研究第一阶段项目将研究由一种新型超材料制成的隔离垫，以减少设备和建筑物的地震振动。传统隔震材料的使用往往会限制设计空间，并且需要昂贵的全尺寸设备测试，这使得该技术无法广泛应用。在这项工作中研究和优化的高性能材料的内部结构可以扩大设计空间，以容纳小到昂贵的设备，大到一座主要桥梁的物体。由于隔离性能从设备层面转移到材料层面，简化了测试协议，使地震隔离可用于广泛的应用，从而增加了更广泛的影响。这项技术所提供的高水平的地震保护，对地震后需要持续经营的商业活动具有直接价值。最初的目标是快速增长的数据中心市场，在住宅建设方面有潜在的后续市场。这项创新的广泛应用有可能提高地震活动易发地区社区的恢复能力，减少相关的直接和间接损失。这个项目的智力价值来自于为增强地震保护的超材料内部结构开发的优化框架。目前还没有一项基于制造公差、成本和地震应用性能来优化超材料的基础研究。这项工作将有助于根据所需的抗震性能开发一套优化内部材料结构的设计原则。将进行实验调查，以验证该方法，并证明用材料粘结试验取代装置试验的可行性，以证明超材料衬垫具有隔震作用。这将包括研究制造具有均匀机械性能的材料组件的加工方法，并将涉及材料的静态和动态测试。该项目的关键技术目标是：1)开发基于制造和抗震性能约束的优化设计框架；2)验证材料性能可扩展性和缺陷不敏感性的材料测试协议。可以预期，超材料结构可以被调制，以提供超越最先进的隔震装置的隔震性能，并且可以在不显着改变性能的情况下从材料片扩展到大型组件。

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project will investigate isolation pads made of a novel class of metamaterials to reduce seismic vibrations of equipment and buildings. Use of traditional seismic isolation materials often leads to restricted design spaces and needs expensive full-scale device testing, which make the technology unfeasible for extensive application. The internal architecture of the high-performance materials to be studied and optimized in this work can enlarge the design space to embrace objects as small as an expensive equipment and as large as a major bridge. Simplification of testing protocols due to the shift of the isolation property from the device to the material level adds to the Broader Impacts by making seismic isolation accessible for a wide range of applications. The high level of seismic protection provided by this technology constitutes an immediate value for commercial activities that require continuity of operations after earthquakes. The initial target is the fast growing market of data centers, with the potential for follow-on market in residential housing construction. The extensive application of the innovation has the potential of increasing the resiliency of communities in areas prone to seismic activity and reducing related direct and indirect losses. The intellectual merit of this project derives from the development of an optimization framework for the internal architecture of metamaterials for enhanced seismic protection. There has not been a fundamental study to optimize metamaterials based on manufacturing tolerances, costs, and performance for seismic applications. This work will contribute to developing a set of design principles for optimized internal material architectures depending on desired seismic performance. Experimental investigations will be carried out to validate the methodology and to prove the feasibility of replacing device testing with material coupon testing to certify metamaterial pads for seismic isolation. This will include the investigation of processing methods to manufacture material assemblies with uniform mechanical properties, and will involve both static and dynamic testing of the material. The key technical objectives of the project are 1) the development of the optimization design framework based on manufacturing and seismic performance constraints, and 2) the material testing protocol to verify scalability and defect insensitivity of the material property. It is anticipated that the metamaterial architecture can be modulated to provide seismic isolation property beyond state of the art seismic isolation devices, and can be scaled from material coupons to large assemblies without significant property modification.