Researchers at the Colorado School of Mines will contribute to a new $5 million research center funded by the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration. The center aims to develop impact-resistant materials with unique properties.
Leslie Lamberson, associate professor of mechanical engineering and director of the Extreme Structures & Materials (X-STRM) Laboratory, will co-lead the experimental efforts at the center, which is managed by the University of California San Diego as part of the NNSA Predictive Science Academic Alliance Program. The collaboration involves structural engineers, mechanical engineers and computer scientists working together to address engineering and computational challenges.
The Center for Simulation and Design of Heterogeneous Architectures for Performance and Energy Absorption (SHAPE) focuses on designing materials with unique internal geometries that exhibit nonlinear properties not achievable with traditional materials. Lamberson’s team will validate and inform the center’s computational models by studying how these materials behave under extreme conditions.
Using advanced facilities at the XSTRM Lab, the team will explore how specially designed metamaterials deform and dissipate energy during high-impact situations. This research aims to enhance understanding of how theoretical concepts can be applied in real-world scenarios.
Lamberson stated, “Our role is to bring these computationally-designed metamaterials into the real world. By subjecting them to high-rate impacts and capturing their response with advanced diagnostics, we will uncover how well theory translates to practice.”
The development of these advanced materials is expected to have significant applications in defense, space, robotics and mechanical computing fields.
