The role of curvature in fracture mechanics of architected materials
Abstract
After a decade of research, ultralight architected materials with engineered microstructures and tailored properties are at the cusp of widespread adoption in aerospace and defense applications. In the quest for novel architectures enabling light-but-strong materials, this project will explore surface curvature as a novel modality of microstructure design. In fact, as suggested by intuition and also recently proved experimentally, fracture and tearing show a strong dependence on the underlying curvature, as a crack release more energy by growing through a positive Gaussian curvature region than a negative one. However, while the design of architected materials with legacy beams, plates, or shells microstructures can be based on fundamental intuition and trial-and-error, predicting the complex behavior of curvature-based architected materials requires advanced high-performance computational modeling. The goal of this project is to develop and validate a scalable simulation capability to analyze the failure mechanisms of architected materials with as-designed microstructural curvatures. A critical aspect of the project will be the development of massively parallel algorithms to simultaneously track large networks of cracks in architected materials. The outcome of this project will shed light on the role of curvature in fracture mechanics and open a new design modality for architected materials. Potential long-term applications include curvature-driven design of ultralight ballistic shields and protection of high-pressure vessels against mission-critical damage ? to name a few.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Sep 01, 2023
- Source ID
- W911NF2310332
Entities
People
- Bianca Giovanardi
Organizations
- Army Contracting Command
- Delft University of Technology
- United States Army