CHS: Small: Collaborative Research: Computational Acoustic Design for Digital Manufacturing

物体的声学特性是影响或定义其功能的最重要的特性之一。因此，设计制造具有高保真声学规格的物体是一项广泛期望的工程任务。目前，这种设计过程仍然缓慢且昂贵，通常需要多次反复试验；因此，对象的声学特性往往根本没有优化，因为这样做会大大增加设计的成本和时间。漫长而次优的设计周期进一步限制了新材料的使用和对形状变化的探索。这项研究旨在通过开发模拟和优化声学的新的数值模型来解决这一根本挑战。项目成果将包括一套计算工具，用于设计物体的几何形状和结构，以便使用新的制造方法(如添加制造)实现其声学特性。这些工具有可能改进当今许多产品的功能，从而将当前的视觉设计范例转变为计算视听设计。这些新工具将提供给大量的专业设计师、工程师、业余爱好者和学生，从而促进乐器、机械结构、消费品和具有独特声学性能的新型材料的设计、制造和定制。更广泛的影响将产生，因为通过这个项目培训的学生将在广泛的工程设计任务中熟练地开发、扩展和利用数值算法和交互设计工具。研究人员将寻求来自博士、硕士和本科生水平的代表性不足的群体的参与。该项目推进了一条完整的计算设计流水线，用于制造高保真声学规格的物体。当获得目标所需的声学特性(如声谱和频率散射剖面)时，管道将通过计算设计目标的几何形状和结构，以使用数字制造实现其声学特性。所提出的方法将弥合参数计算机辅助设计(CAD)模型和离散有限元网格之间的长期差距，并将在用户参与的情况下实现所设计结构的自动计算优化。因此，它们将重塑当今的声学设计，从目前的“先设计后分析”转变为“先设计后分析”的过程。为此，这项研究将解决一些基础研究问题，包括：(1)准确、高效的面向设计的模拟方法，以预测给定设计的声音特性；(2)将所需的声学特性转换为形状和材料规格的自动优化算法；以及(3)具有包含模拟代码的直观、交互用户界面的高效计算机辅助设计系统。该方法将在一个综合的跨学科研究计划中解决所有这些方面，利用两名研究人员在各自领域的专业知识。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The acoustic characteristics of objects are among the most important properties that influence or define their function. Thus, design for fabrication of objects with high-fidelity acoustic specifications is a widely desired engineering task. Currently, this design process remains slow and expensive, commonly requiring many trial-and-error iterations; as a consequence, an object's acoustic properties are often not optimized at all, as to do so would drastically increase the design's cost and time. The long and suboptimal design cycle further limits the use of new materials and the exploration of shape variations. This research aims to address this fundamental challenge by developing new numerical models that simulate and optimize acoustics. Project outcomes will include a suite of computational tools that design the geometric shape and structure of an object so as to realize its acoustic properties using novel fabrication methods such as additive manufacturing. These tools have the potential to improve the function of many of today's products, thereby shifting the current paradigm of visual design into computational audiovisual design. The new tools will be made available to a large population of expert designers, engineers, hobbyists, and students, thereby facilitating the design, manufacture and customization of musical instruments, mechanical structures, consumer products, and novel materials with unique acoustic properties. Additional broad impact will derive because students trained by this project will become skilled in developing, extending, and harnessing numerical algorithms and interactive design tools in a wide array of engineering design tasks. The investigators will seek participation from underrepresented groups at the doctoral, masters, and undergraduate levels.This project advances a complete pipeline of computational design for manufacturing objects with high-fidelity acoustic specifications. When provided with the desired acoustic properties of an object such as sound spectrum and frequency scattering profile, the pipeline will computationally design the object's geometric shape and structure to realize its acoustic properties using digital fabrication. The proposed methods will bridge the longstanding gap between parametric computer-aided design (CAD) models and discrete finite-element meshes, and will embrace automatic computational optimization of designed structures with the user in the loop. Thus, they will reshape today's acoustic design, shifting from its current "design then analysis" process to a "design with analysis" process. To this end, the research will address a number of fundamental research questions including: (1) accurate, efficient design-oriented simulation methods to predict sound properties of a given design; (2) automated optimization algorithms that translate desired acoustic properties to shape and material specifications; and (3) efficient computer aided design systems with intuitive, interactive user interfaces incorporating simulation codes. The approach will address all these aspects in an integrated interdisciplinary research plan, leveraging the expertise of both investigators in their respective fields.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.