Meta-material adhesives for improved performance and functionalisation of bondlines

可持续发展目标是在欧洲政策中制定的，旨在实现可持续的、有竞争力的循环经济。最近，在《欧洲绿色协议》通讯中，欧盟委员会承诺通过一项新的《循环经济行动计划》，以加速并继续向循环经济过渡。这一承诺在很大程度上反映在材料科学、生产和开发的新方法上，并受到新兴增材制造等技术的推动。新材料技术的发展将在塑造这一急需的绿色转型中发挥决定性作用，这有两个关键方面；先进材料的开发，其可制造性在对功能的高要求和生产链中可持续性的改善之间取得最佳平衡。关注自身的功能，例如运输，建筑和能源生产行业的材料，以及对更好，更便宜和可持续材料的前所未有的需求是及时的。然而，维持或进一步提高现有材料（包括轻质复合材料、金属合金或陶瓷）的性能和可靠性，对当前范例的核心提出了挑战。对于许多应用来说，连接相似或不同的材料是必不可少的，而粘合剂连接是传统连接方法的一种有吸引力的替代方法，可以产生具有更多功能，更好的机械和物理性能的新型复合材料。粘接工艺和粘合剂广泛用于工程结构的一次和二次粘接。然而，一些未解决的问题仍然存在，比如利用粘合线的潜力，真正为可持续工程结构的发展做出贡献——那些促进结构部件的预防、再利用和重新利用的工程结构。本研究项目旨在解决这些尚未解决的问题，并为可持续结构粘接提供创新的材料和结构概念、新的建模技术和新的实验方法。该项目有多个目标，需要跨学科的方法来解决每一个目标。主要目标是在粘合剂粘合框架内利用机械超材料的概念，并为结构和可调谐粘合线（即“元粘合剂”）开发解决方案。“超胶粘剂”概念将通过在胶粘剂体中实现精心设计的超材料晶格来研究。调查将跨越几个尺度水平，从材料到结构部件，并将响应具体的基础研究问题，如：(i)超材料的结垢特性是否以可预测的方式影响键合线断裂韧性；（ii）破坏特征（从几何破坏到材料破坏）将如何受到影响，以及有结构结合线将如何影响载荷传递；（iii）以何种方式和在何种程度上可以将超粘合粘合线功能化，以服务于上述预防/再利用和重新利用，以改善结构的可持续性。该奖学金将允许申请人使用和扩展他在机械超材料领域的知识，以处理未解决的问题，并推荐创新的材料和结构概念，新的建模技术，以及可持续结构键合的新实验方法。

Sustainable development goals are formulated within European policies aiming at a sustainable, and yet competitive, circular economy. Most recently, in the Communication on the European Green Deal, the European Commission committed to the adoption of a new Circular Economy Action Plan to accelerate and continue the transition towards a circular economy. This commitment is heavily reflected in novel approaches to materials science, production, and development, and it is driven by technologies such as emerging additive manufacturing. There are two critical fronts in which the development of new materials' technologies will play a decisive role in shaping this much needed green transition; the development of advanced materials whose manufacturability strikes an optimal balance between high demands for functionality, and the improvement of sustainability in the production chain. Focus on the functionality in its own right, e.g., in materials for the transport, construction and energy generation industries, together with unprecedented need for better, cheaper, and sustainable materials is timely. However, maintaining or further increasing the performance and reliability of existing materials, including lightweight composite materials, metal alloys or ceramics, presents challenges at the heart of this current paradigm. For many applications joining similar or dissimilar materials is indispensable, while adhesive bonding is an attractive alternative to classical joining methods, leading to new composites with more functions, and better mechanical and physical performance. Bonding processes and adhesives are used in a wide range of engineering structures for primary and secondary bonding. However, certain unresolved questions remain open regarding the exploitation of the potential of adhesive bondlines to truly contribute to the development of sustainable engineering structures-those promoting prevention, reuse and repurposing of structural components. This research project proposes to deal with these unresolved questions and to recommend innovative material and structural concepts, new modelling techniques, and novel experimental methods for sustainable structural bonding. The project has multiple objectives, necessitating an interdisciplinary approach for addressing each one of them. The main goal is to exploit the concept of Mechanical Metamaterials within the framework of adhesive bonding and to develop solutions for architected and tuneable bondlines, namely "meta-adhesives". The "meta-adhesive" concept will be investigated by implementing well designed metamaterial lattices into the adhesive bulk. The investigation will span in several scale levels, from the material to the structural component and will respond to specific basic research questions such as: (i) whether the metamaterial scaling properties affect the bondline fracture toughness in a predictable manner; (ii) how the features of failure (from geometrical to material failure) will be affected and how load transfer will be influenced by having architected bondlines; (iii) in which manner and to what extent can the meta-adhesive bondline be functionalised in order to serve the aforementioned prevention/reuse and repurposing for improved sustainability in structures. This fellowship will allow the applicant to use and expand his knowledge in the field of Mechanical Metamaterials to deal with unresolved questions and to recommend innovative material and structural concepts, new modelling techniques, and novel experimental methods for sustainable structural bonding.