Avian Bone-Inspired Lightweight Self-Adapting and Damage-Mitigating Materials
Abstract
The objective of the proposed research is to investigate principles for the design and synthesis of lightweight self-adapting and damage-mitigating materials inspired by avian bones. Owing to their intriguing capabilities, natural organisms have been sources of inspiration for scientists and engineers. In particular, avian species inspire future aerospace materials and vehicles from their lightweight and versatile bodies made of hollow bones that can dynamically adapt to various environments. The multifunctional capabilities of avian species enable them to flourish in a wide range of situations. We envision that the next generation synthetic materials for aerospace applications should have such capabilities to maintain mission readiness by optimizing their properties autonomously based on dynamic conditions and, hence, minimizing downtime. To fill the knowledge gap for realizing such materials, we are inspired by the self-adaptive behavior of bones, the hollow architecture of avian bones, damage-tolerant crystal microstructures, and piezo potential-induced material synthesis. We will investigate mechanisms governing force-activated material deposition on lightweight damage-tolerant scaffolds for self-adaptive materials. We believe that the findings from the proposed research will lead to the fundamental understanding required to design and synthesize next-generation lightweight materials with unprecedented mission readiness by autonomously changing properties and mitigating damages in response to changing loading conditions during flight. It will contribute to making materials with significantly increased reliability resulting in reduced inspection/maintenance and associated downtime/cost. Moreover, they could contribute to changing the paradigm of the material selection for future Air Force systems with reduced over-design, leading to optimal and efficient use of materials and increased performance and operational flexibility.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Jan 21, 2022
- Source ID
- FA95502110368XX0
Entities
People
- Sung Kang
Organizations
- Air Force Office of Scientific Research
- Johns Hopkins University
- United States Air Force