The focus of this thrust is on decentralized, adaptive and flexible advanced manufacturing capabilities, including on modeling for Additive Manufacturing (layered and robotic); Design for Manufacturing; ultrafast laser processing; biodegradable sensors and devices; process monitoring and control; system diagnostics, quality and reliability improvement in advanced manufacturing.
Modeling and Design of Fluid Infilled Complex Structures for Mechanical Performances
The goal of this project is to establish a computational framework for modeling and design of components with complex inner structure and fluid infill. This project provides a novel method for generative design of fluid-structure systems to achieve unprecedented performances (e.g. ballistic/impact protection). This project includes the following tasks:
-
Featurizing and generating complex 3D structures by deep learning;
-
Developing, calibrating, and validating the fluid-structure interaction model;
-
Understanding the relationship among structural characteristics, fluid properties and filling ratio, and the nonlinear mechanical behaviors to provide guidance for design optimization of the fluid-containing structures.
Use of Light as a Primary Printing Mechanism Enabling Relative High Speed and High-Resolution Printing
Use of light as a primary printing mechanism enables relatively high speed and high-resolution printing, when compared to other additive manufacturing (AM) techniques that typically rely on deposition of molten plastics/inks or fusion of powder-based samples. This figure demonstrates two advanced AM techniques we work on that use light to initiate various chemical reactions to print high-resolution, multimaterial 3D structures. (Top row) 100-micron resolution 3D structures printed with custom-built multi-material DLP printer. Structures are composed of polymers filled with and without carbon nanotubes. (Bottom row) Micron/sub-micron resolution 2D/3D structures printed with custom-built multi-photon SLA setup. Structures composed of silver metal structures on a 2D substrate or embedded in a polymer matrix.