Crystallographically-Architected Mechanical Metamaterials (CrystArMM)

近年来，机械超材料由于其不寻常但通常令人满意的机械性能而受到广泛关注。这些特性通常在天然材料中找不到，而是其工程内部结构的结果。该研究计划的愿景是系统地利用成熟的晶体学科学作为设计和开发优于现有传统设计的新型建筑机械超材料的范例。特别是，该项目将重点关注零或负刚度（ZNS）超材料，这些材料在变形过程中表现出单相或多相的零或负刚度。这样的超材料可以具有期望的结构特性，例如用于可恢复的冲击弹性的可逆变形以及极端的阻尼特性。该项目名为晶体结构机械超材料（CrystArMM），主要目的是为新型ZNS超材料的优化设计和性能评估开发一种稳健的设计方法。该项目将涉及新型机械超材料的系统设计和结构找形，然后使用有效的经典或超启发式方法进行几何优化。更具体地说，它将导致开发一个框架的参数化设计，晶体学修改，结构行为评估和优化的新型ZNS机械超材料，也可能表现出其他非常规的属性，如负泊松比。新的设计将在替代品空间中与一组传统设计进行虚拟测试，以比较评估其模拟性能。利用3D打印或水射流切割等制造技术，新设计和优化的超材料也将进行物理制造和测试，以验证分析和数值模拟的目的，以及与一组减少的可比传统超材料进行对比，以实验评估拟议设计的比较性能。这种设计框架的发展将能够丰富科学家和工程师基于其应用研究的可能的超材料设计的范围。该项目可以促进发现全新范围的超材料和超结构，在包括体育工程，冲击工程，振动控制和软机器人在内的各个领域具有潜在的应用。

Mechanical metamaterials have been of widespread attraction in recent years as a result of their unusual, but often desirable, mechanical properties. Such properties are, in general, not found in natural materials, but are the results of their engineered internal structures. The vision for this research programme is to systematically utilize the well-established science of crystallography as a paradigm for the design and development of novel architected mechanical metamaterials which outperform existing conventional designs. In particular, this project will focus on zero or negative stiffness (ZNS) metamaterials which manifest single or multiple phases of zero or negative stiffness during their deformation process. Such metamaterials could have desirable structural properties such as reversible deformation to be used for recoverable impact resilience as well as extreme damping properties. The main aim of this project, entitled Crystallographically-Architected Mechanical Metamaterials (CrystArMM), is to develop a robust design methodology for the optimal design and performance evaluation of new ZNS metamaterials.The project will involve the systematic design and structural form-finding of novel mechanical metamaterials, followed by geometrical optimisation using efficient classic or metaheuristic methods. More specifically, it will lead to the development of a framework for the parametric design, crystallographic modification, structural behaviour evaluation, and optimisation of novel ZNS mechanical metamaterials which may also exhibit other unconventional properties such as negative Poisson's ratio. The novel designs will be virtually tested against a set of traditional ones in the space of alternatives to comparatively evaluate their simulated performance. Exploiting manufacturing technologies such as 3D printing or water-jet cutting, the newly-designed and optimised metamaterials will also be physically fabricated and tested for the purpose of validation of analytical and numerical simulations as well as against a reduced set of comparable conventional metamaterials to experimentally evaluate the comparative performance of proposed designs. The development of such a design framework will enable enriching the range of possible metamaterial designs on which scientists and engineers base their applied research. This project could facilitate the discovery of completely new ranges of metamaterials and metastructures with potential applications in various fields including sports engineering, impact engineering, vibration control, and soft robotics.