Tardigrade (Quarterly Report Q1 FY2022)
Tardigrade is an effort to create tunable thermal expansion materials for use in a ruggedized lens housing. This requires new computational algorithms to model and predict thermal performance of meta-materials composed of multiple structured base materials and void-space, along with matching and developing 3D print technology to demonstrate the housing. The project is 27 months into the 36-month plan. We are continuing effort on 3 main technical thrusts: material design algorithm development (transitioning into full 3D design), multi-material additive manufacturing process exploration, and sensor/optics design and engineering. In the last quarter, we have focused on developing the code for 3D Topology Optimization, building data sets for 2D autoencoder training, and finishing lens housing engineering for the microbolometer based test sensor. We are exploring 2 potential multi-material AM technologies, a polymer-based technique in development at LLNL and a metal SLS system produced by Aconity, called the AeroSint deposition head.