Nonlocal Elastic Metamaterials: Leveraging Intentional Nonlocality to Design Programmable Structures

Purdue University, West Lafayette IN

Investigators

Abstract

This award supports research that aims to develop a radically new class of elastic metamaterials that leverages intentional nonlocality as a design principle to achieve new material functionalities unachievable in via traditional materials. To date, metamaterial systems have been able to deliver unique properties that can largely surpass traditional materials, but these properties are limited to very narrow ranges of operating frequencies and functionalities, which in turns limit their practical application. The nonlocal approach will help overcome substantial obstacles on the way to transition elastic metamaterial technology towards real world applications. From a broader perspective, the theoretical and computational design tools developed in this project can have far-reaching impacts in other fields and applications such as the design of civil infrastructures resilient against extreme events, acoustic insulation for noise control in buildings and transportation systems, and advanced photonic and electromagnetic materials for electronic devices, telecommunications, and defense systems. The concept hinges on an intentionally nonlocal and hierarchical design that, by exploiting nonlocal interactions across spatial scales, will enable materials with exceptionally broadband dynamic performance, tunable effective properties, and programmable dynamics. The integration of nonlocality within a hierarchical design framework leads to the concept of multiscale nonlocality that will serve as a foundational theoretical principle to engineer complex material behavior across scales and to achieve a level of control on effective material properties not achievable by operating at a single scale. This project will also introduce the distinctive concept of delocalized action as a means to achieve efficient material tuning and reconfiguration. While delocalization is a natural consequence of nonlocality, its use to control material properties is largely unexplored and opens an extremely flexible and customizable design space where the material is designed in a distributed sense, hence paving the way towards materials exhibiting extreme structural efficiency. 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.