Self-adaptive Building Fa?ade Enabled via Pressure-regulated Metamaterials and Reinforcement Learning Control

虽然作用在我们建筑物上的力量和能量是高度可变的（即，从变化的气候到居住者行为）当前的建筑实践仍然设计和操作建筑物外部围护结构（例如，立面）作为一个静态系统。大量的节能潜力存在于解决方案中，这些解决方案超越了建筑围护结构，从简单的保护性空间分隔物到更智能和响应性更强的表皮，以适应气候和能源优化。该项目研究了一种使用压力调节超材料自主控制建筑立面的热和机械性能的新方法。与需要许多移动部件和高操作能量的机械致动动力百叶窗不同，一些超材料的可变形介观结构可以响应流体压力并在宏观尺度水平上共同改变包络特性。这将导致从根本上减少维护和降低生命周期成本。它还通过适应气候条件和居住者需求的更广泛变化，提供了优于智能材料的优势。该项目将通过与工业合作伙伴和国家实验室的合作产生广泛的影响。研究经验将被整合到一个多学科的教育和推广计划，以吸引研究生，本科生和K-12学生，特别是历史上代表性不足的群体的学生。本研究的目的是使自适应建筑围护结构的设计和操作，可以主动响应周围环境的变化，并随着时间的推移发展其性能。通过利用流体和介孔超材料之间的相互作用，可以对建筑立面的热和机械性能进行反应性调整，以减少建筑能耗并抑制对建筑结构有害的机械振动。本研究的假设是：（1）流体和压力响应超材料之间的可逆体积反应可以用来操纵建筑立面的热和机械性能;（2）通过允许围护系统与变化的环境动态相互作用，可以协同提高建筑物的能量和结构效率。具体而言，将进行三个相互关联的任务：（1）将建立计算框架，以设计和优化具有可调节的热和机械性能的压力响应超材料;（2）将基于无模型强化学习方法制定自主控制策略，以使被动建筑围护结构能够学习和适应不断变化的环境;最后（3）将进行全尺寸组件验证测试和案例研究，以量化节能潜力。

While the forces and energies acting on our building stocks are highly mutable (i.e., from the changing climates to the occupant behaviors) current building practices still design and operate building exterior envelope (e.g., façade) as a static system. Substantial energy saving potentials reside in solutions that transcend building envelope from a simple protective space divider to a more intelligent and responsive skin attuned to climate and energy optimization. This project investigates a novel approach to autonomously control the thermal and mechanical properties of building façades using pressure-regulated metamaterials. Unlike mechanically actuated kinetic louvers that require numerous moving parts and high operational energy, the deformable mesostructure of some metamaterials can respond to fluidic pressure and collectively change the envelope properties at macroscale level. This will lead to radically less maintenance and lower life-cycle cost. It also offers advantage over smart materials by providing adaptation to much broader variations in climate conditions and occupant demands. This project will have broad impacts through collaborations with industrial partners and national labs. The research experiences will be integrated into a multidisciplinary education and outreach program to engage a diverse group of graduate, undergraduate, and K-12 students, particularly, the students from historically underrepresented groups.The objective of this research is to enable the design and operation of self-adaptive building envelopes that can proactively respond to the changes in surrounding environments and evolve their performance over time. By utilizing the interactions between fluids and mesoporous metamaterials, the thermal and mechanical properties of building façade can be reactively tuned to reduce building energy consumption and suppress mechanical vibrations that are detrimental to building structures. The hypotheses of this research are (1) the reversible volume reaction between fluids and pressure-responsive metamaterials can be utilized to manipulate the thermal and mechanical properties of building façade; and (2) building energy and structural efficiencies can be synergistically improved by allowing the envelope system to dynamically interact with the changing environments. Specifically, three interrelated tasks will be carried out where: (1) a computational framework will be established to design and optimize pressure-responsive metamaterials with adjustable thermal and mechanical properties; (2) an autonomous control strategy will be formulated based on Model-Free Reinforcement Learning method to enable the otherwise passive building envelope to learn and adapt to the continually changing environments; and lastly (3) full-scale component validation tests and case studies will be performed to quantify the energy saving potential.