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，用于制造具有高保真声学规格的物体的设计是广泛期望的工程任务。 目前，这种设计过程仍然缓慢而昂贵，通常需要许多试错迭代;因此，物体的声学特性通常根本没有优化，因为这样做会大大增加设计的成本和时间。 长且次优的设计周期进一步限制了新材料的使用和形状变化的探索。 这项研究旨在通过开发新的数值模型来模拟和优化声学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（如增材制造）实现其声学特性。 这些工具有可能改善当今许多产品的功能，从而将当前的视觉设计范式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特性的新型材料的设计、制造和定制。 额外的广泛影响将产生，因为通过这个项目培训的学生将成为熟练的开发，扩展和利用数值算法和交互式设计工具，在广泛的工程设计任务。 研究人员将寻求博士，硕士和本科生水平的代表性不足的群体的参与。该项目推进了一个完整的计算设计管道，用于制造具有高保真声学规格的物体。 当被提供有物体的期望声学特性（诸如声音频谱和频率散射轮廓）时，管道将计算地设计物体的几何形状和结构，以使用数字制造来实现其声学特性。 所提出的方法将弥合参数化计算机辅助设计（CAD）模型和离散有限元网格之间长期存在的差距，并将包括设计结构的自动计算优化与用户在循环中。 因此，他们将重塑今天的声学设计，从目前的“设计然后分析”过程转变为“设计与分析”过程。 为此，该研究将解决一些基础研究问题，包括：（1）准确，高效的设计导向仿真方法，以预测给定设计的声音特性;（2）自动优化算法，将所需的声学特性转换为形状和材料规格;（3）高效的计算机辅助设计系统，具有直观，交互式的用户界面，并包含仿真代码。 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的问题，利用双方研究人员在各自领域的专业知识。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估来支持。

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.