CAREER: Performance through Curvature – An Integrated Computational and Experimental Study of the Mechanics of 3D Self-Architected Materials

Massachusetts Institute Of Technology, Cambridge MA

Investigators

Abstract

This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2). This Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) grant will focus on providing a fundamental mechanical understanding of self-architected materials, i.e., materials whose three-dimensional (3D) architecture is determined by natural processes as opposed to being designed a priori by humans. The integrated computational and experimental approach will concentrate on relating geometric parameters such as curvature to the resulting mechanical responses, providing mechanics-based design guidelines and predictive tools for this family of metamaterials. Self-architected materials with 3D architectures at the nano-to-microscale present a potential route for scalable nanomaterials that are lightweight and attain extreme mechanical properties, but their curvature-to-mechanical property relation remains largely unknown. This research project will contribute to filling those fundamental knowledge gaps by providing a knowledge base that facilitates the design of new types of lightweight centimeter-scale materials with aperiodic self-architected nanoscale features that do not rely on advanced additive manufacturing, and whose mechanical properties could surpass those of classical architected materials. Uncovering the mechanics of self-architected materials can lead to advanced lightweight structural materials for aerospace applications, protective coatings for defense capabilities, and design principles for resilient engineered materials—all of which would contribute towards solving ongoing mechanics-of-materials engineering challenges. An integrated educational and outreach program will accompany research efforts, focusing on virtual and in-person engagement of K-12 students and educators—including an augmented reality framework—introducing design, fabrication, and experiments on 3D architected materials to a broader audience, particularly to underrepresented (e.g., Hispanic) groups. The specific objective of this project is to uncover geometry-to-mechanics relations for self-architected materials, such as those derived via spinodal decomposition processes, that enable prediction and understanding of their mechanical properties such as their stiffness, strength, and fracture toughness as a function of curvature distribution. Expanding on the concept that negative Gaussian curvature provides stretching-dominated deformation in shell-based architected materials, this project seeks to significantly expand on this curvature-induced benefit by determining how the directionality of negative-curvature enhances the mechanical properties. This approach will integrate four thrusts that include scalable fabrication of the phase-separation self-architected materials, computational frameworks to design and predict the mechanical properties of desirable morphologies, and nanomechanical experiments on both naturally self-architected samples and on 3D-printed microscale prototypes. Most research efforts will concentrate on understanding curvature-dependent beyond-linear effective properties and failure mechanisms of self-architected materials, towards the design of lightweight but tough scalable architected materials. 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.