Search NASA⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search NASA

Results for “Architected materials”

Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 19 records
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2025

Influence of strain-rate on the response of elastomeric architected materials

Architected materials have shown substantial promise in impact mitigation and protective applications, and there has accordingly been great interest in better characterizing their response at elevated strain rates due to impact. There remains ambiguity regarding the contribution of inertial and material responses to strain rate sensitivity, and, in particular, when these effects begin to gain dominance in the impact response of an architected material. The response of soft polymer architected materials as a function of strain rate, in particular, has been little investigated. We characterize the experimental impact response of four soft polymer architected lattice geometries across varying strain rates in the intermediate strain rate regime (∼10 3 s −1 ) using split-Hopkinson pressure bar loading and high speed video characterization of the resulting deformation fields. In conclusion, our results highlight the interplay of influence between constituent material, lattice geometry, length scale, and strain rate in determining the onset of significant inertia effects.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2025

3D polycatenated architected materials

Architected materials derive their properties from the geometric arrangement of their internal structural elements. Their designs rely on continuous networks of members to control the global mechanical behavior of the bulk. Here, in this study, we introduce a class of materials that consist of discrete concatenated rings or cage particles interlocked in three-dimensional networks, forming polycatenated architected materials (PAMs). We propose a general design framework that translates arbitrary crystalline networks into particle concatenations and geometries. In response to small external loads, PAMs behave like non-Newtonian fluids, showing both shear-thinning and shear-thickening responses, which can be controlled by their catenation topologies. At larger strains, PAMs behave like lattices and foams, with a nonlinear stress-strain relation. At microscale, we demonstrate that PAMs can change their shapes in response to applied electrostatic charges. The distinctive properties of PAMs pave the path for developing stimuli-responsive materials, energy-absorbing systems, and morphing architectures.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2026

Micro-architected material design for mechanical response

Rapid advances in additive manufacturing (AM) have enabled the creation of micro-architected materials—also known as mechanical metamaterials—with unprecedented control over fine-scale geometries and arrangements of multiple material constituents. These “materials” can achieve unique and extraordinary effective mechanical properties through their complex architectures rather than composition alone. A key challenge is to design for these bespoke effective mechanical responses within the constraints of available AM techniques (i.e., given a set of desired effective properties), identify a (often nonunique) micro-architecture and selection of material constituents that achieves them. Two main strategies have emerged. Gradient-based methods use sensitivity analysis to iteratively refine candidate designs, while data-driven methods learn micro-architecture-constituent relationships from existing examples to propose new designs. This article reviews these design approaches for micro-architected materials with tailored mechanical responses that can be fabricated by AM as well as their applications.

Spadaccini, Christopher M [Lawrence Livermore Nati↗
DOE OSTI2025

Laser‐Powder Melt Pool Solidification Dynamics and Microstructural Engineering of Ti‐5553 Microlattices

The fine geometric and topological control afforded by additive manufacturing technologies has enabled the manufacture of architected materials across length scales, and enabling tunable mechanical performance as a function of local and global design. Progress has been made to tune the mechanical response of architected materials through geometry, but understanding how the geometry and processing conditions will inform the microstructure remains a challenge due to the rapid solidification in laser powder bed fusion. This study uses in situ X-ray imaging and electron backscatter diffraction microscopy to demonstrate that the melt pool size, microstructure morphology, and elastic strain distribution is influenced by a combination of lattice geometry and laser processing conditions. These results indicate that within larger melt pools the local thermal gradients are sufficient to enable a columnar-to-equiaxed transition across the melt pool. Furthermore, the solidification mechanisms producing these microstructures are examined across the first 5 ms of melting and solidification, described via in situ high-speed X-ray imaging and mirrored via multiphysics simulation.

additive manufacturing↗
DOE OSTI2026

U-net architected deep material network training with microstructure local field information

The Deep Material Network (DMN) has recently emerged as a powerful reduced-order modeling framework for simulating the mechanical response of heterogeneous materials such as composites. Unlike most data-driven approaches that directly learn a material’s response under prescribed loading, the DMN acts as a homogenization operator, learning the kinematic constraints and mechanical interactions of the underlying microstructure. However, traditional DMN training relies exclusively on homogenized effective properties derived from Direct Numerical Simulations (DNS), discarding the rich local field data that govern microstructural interactions. In this work, we extend the DMN framework to incorporate such local field information into the offline training process. Utilizing a U-Net architecture, we augment the DMN training objective to include the first and second statistical moments of the local stress fields obtained from linear DNS. This ensures that the learned network topology not only fits the effective stiffness but also accurately reflects the internal local stress and strain partitioning of the microstructure. The results confirm that supervising the localization process during training yields a superior surrogate model, reducing local prediction errors by an order of magnitude and significantly improving generalization to unseen nonlinear constitutive behaviors compared to traditional DMNs.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2025

Embedded 3D printing of isotropically enhanced lattice structure with programmable elasticity via three-dimensional fiber alignment

Engineered composites with fiber orientation in a complete three-dimensional (3D) context are highly desired for maximizing structural performance as they mimic the well-organized fiber arrangement in natural composites. However, most fabrication techniques lack the capability for through-plane (z-axis) alignment, limiting the possibility for structural design and performance optimization. In this study, we present an embedded 3D printing approach that enables complete 3D fiber alignment, including region-specific alignment control along the through-plane direction. Our method utilizes the extrusion and suspension of composite inks within a supporting matrix. By regionally adjusting the ink extrusion rate and nozzle translation rate, we locally manipulated the fiber arrangement within the composite 3D architecture. Here, we demonstrate that the 3D alignment of carbon fibers in a structural composite significantly enhances both mechanical properties and thermal conductivity in the in-plane and through-plane directions. Furthermore, by strategically arranging regional fiber orientations within micro-architected materials, we fabricated metamaterial engineered composites with programmable anisotropy ratio and directional moduli.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2025

Energy Research Frontier Center: Photonics at Thermodynamic Limits

The Photonics at Thermodynamic Limits (PTL) EFRC strives to achieve photonic operations at thermodynamic limits by controlling the flow of photons, electrons, and phonons in atomically architected materials, enabling entirely new energy conversion systems. To achieve this mission, the EFRC united leading researchers in layered and nanostructured materials synthesis, electromagnetic theory, first‐principles quantum theory of materials, and advanced characterization of excited state phenomena. The two-year extension of the EFRC has finished several key efforts started in the EFRC in the previous funding period.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2025

EFRC PTL: Photonics at Thermodynamic Limits

The Photonics at Thermodynamic Limits (PTL) EFRC strives to achieve photonic operations at thermodynamic limits by controlling the flow of photons, electrons, and phonons in atomically architected materials, enabling entirely new energy conversion systems. To achieve this mission, the EFRC united leading researchers in layered and nanostructured materials synthesis, electromagnetic theory, first‐principles quantum theory of materials, and advanced characterization of excited state phenomena.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2024

EFRC-MUSE: Multi-Scale Fluid-Solid Interactions in Architected and Natural Materials

Phase interactions and fluid properties in geological and other environments are critical in applications ranging from hydrogen production and geologic storage and recovery, carbon dioxide storage and sequestration, and the sustainable use of water resources. The four goals of EFRC-MUSE: Multi-Scale Fluid-Solid Interactions in Architected and Natural Materials were based on the priority directions articulated in the Basic Research Needs documents, and the scientific needs in nanoscience. 1. Develop a fundamental understanding of confinement and surface interactions in mesoscale media with nanometer-sized pores on the phase behavior, thermodynamic and multiphase flow properties of multicomponent fluid mixtures. 2. Examine the impact of mineralogy and material heterogeneity on mechanical properties to better understand chemo-mechanical interactions in material failure. 3. Determine in-operando cross-scale structural and nanostructural material properties with fluids in confinement and flow under realistic condi

58 GEOSCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2024

Stratification of fluoride uptake among enamel crystals with age elucidated by atom probe tomography

Dental enamel is subjected to a lifetime of de- and re-mineralization cycles in the oral environment, the cumulative effects of which cause embrittlement with age. However, the understanding of atomic scale mechanisms of dental enamel aging is still at its infancy, particularly regarding where compositional differences occur in the hydroxyapatite nanocrystals and what underlying mechanisms might be responsible. Here, we use atom probe tomography to compare enamel from a young (22 years old) and a senior (56 years old) adult donor tooth. Findings reveal that the concentration of fluorine is elevated in the shells of senior nanocrystals relative to young, with less significant differences between the cores or intergranular phases. It is proposed that the embrittlement of enamel is driven, at least in part, by the infusion of fluorine into the nanocrystals and that the principal mechanism is de- and re-mineralization cycles that preferentially erode and rebuild the nanocrystals shells.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2026

T3tris: AI-Driven Inverse Design of Cellular Materials

Los Alamos National Laboratory has developed T3tris, a generative AI platform that enables real-time inverse design of architected cellular materials. This capability transforms how mechanical metamaterials are designed by generating microstructural topologies that conform to target nonlinear stress-strain curves, even at high compressive strain (up to 50%).

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2025

A multiscale design method using interpretable machine learning for phononic materials with closely interacting scales

Manipulating the dispersive characteristics of vibrational waves is beneficial for many applications, e.g., high-precision instruments. architected hierarchical phononic materials have sparked promise tunability of elastodynamic waves and vibrations over multiple frequency ranges. In this article, hierarchical unit-cells are obtained, where features at each length scale result in a band gap within a targeted frequency range. Our novel approach, the ‘‘hierarchical unit-cell template method,’’ is an interpretable machine-learning approach that uncovers global unit-cell shape/topology patterns corresponding to predefined band-gap objectives. A scale-separation effect is observed where the coarse-scale band-gap objective is mostly unaffected by the fine-scale features despite the closeness of their length scales, thus enabling an efficient hierarchical algorithm. Moreover, the hierarchical patterns revealed are not predefined or self-similar hierarchies as common in current hierarchical phononic materials. Furthermore, our approach offers a flexible and efficient method for the exploration of new regions in the hierarchical design space, extracting minimal effective patterns for inverse design in applications targeting multiple frequency ranges.

Architected materials↗
DOE OSTI2026

Alignment switching in 3D-printed smectic liquid crystal elastomers

Extrusion-based additive manufacturing has emerged as a powerful platform for designing shape-morphing materials through controlled orientation. However, existing approaches primarily rely on a single mode of flow-induced alignment, limiting orientation programmability. Herein, we present a direct-ink-writing approach for smectic liquid crystal elastics that exploits two distinct alignment modes within a single ink. The smectic ink exhibits shear- and temperature-dependent orientation switching, enabling molecular alignment either perpendicular or parallel to the print direction. Combined rheological, X-ray, and molecular dynamics analyses reveal that this alignment inversion arises from the preservation or collapse of smectic layers under flow. This reversible switching encodes both contractile and elongational actuation within individual filaments, greatly expanding the design freedom of printed liquid crystal elastomers. We demonstrate 2D and 3D structures with diverse programmed shape transformations, highlighting the potential of this platform for adaptive soft actuators and architected functional materials.

Lee, Jin Hyeong [Pusan National University, Busan,↗
DOE OSTI2026

Instabilities and phase transitions in architected metamaterials: a gradient-enhanced continuum approach

Architected metamaterials such as foams and lattices exhibit a wide range of properties governed by microstructural instabilities and emerging phase transitions. Their macroscopic response–including energy dissipation during impact, large recoverable deformations, morphing between configurations, and auxetic behavior–remains difficult to capture with conventional continuum models, which often rely on discrete approaches that limit scalability. In this work, we propose a nonlocal continuum formulation that captures both stable and unstable responses of elastic architected metamaterials. The framework extends anisotropic hyperelasticity by introducing nonlocal variables and internal length scales reflective of microstructural features. Local polyconvex free-energy models are systematically augmented with two families of non-(poly)convex energies, enabling both metastable and bistable responses. Implementation in a finite element framework enables solution using a hybrid monolithic–staggered strategy. Simulations capture densification fronts, forward and reverse transitions, hysteresis loops, imperfection sensitivity, and globally coordinated auxetic modes. Overall, this framework provides a robust foundation for accelerated modeling of instability-driven phenomena in architected metamaterials, while enabling extensions to anisotropic, dissipative, and active systems as well as integration with data-driven and machine learning approaches.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2024

Tailored ultrasound propagation in microscale metamaterials via inertia design

The quasi-static properties of micro-architected (meta)materials have been extensively studied over the past decade, but their dynamic responses, especially in acoustic metamaterials with engineered wave propagation behavior, represent a new frontier. However, challenges in miniaturizing and characterizing acoustic metamaterials in high-frequency (megahertz) regimes have hindered progress toward experimentally implementing ultrasonic-wave control. Here, we present an inertia design framework based on positioning microspheres to tune responses of 3D microscale metamaterials. We demonstrate tunable quasi-static stiffness by up to 75% and dynamic longitudinal-wave velocities by up to 25% while maintaining identical material density. Using noncontact laser-based dynamic experiments of tunable elastodynamic properties and numerical demonstrations of spatio-temporal ultrasound wave propagation, we explore the tunable static and elastodynamic property relation. This design framework expands the quasi-static and dynamic metamaterial property space through simple geometric changes, enabling facile design and fabrication of metamaterials for applications in medical ultrasound and analog computing.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2025

Probing Carbon Mineralization Mechanisms in Pore and Bulk Fluids by Harnessing Architected Calcium Silicates

The ability to synthesize materials with well-controlled pore structures gives us unprecedented control over probing fluid interactions with reactive interfaces and advancing calibrated insights into coupled chemo-morphological interactions. One of the primary challenges in developing crystalline silicate materials lies in achieving ordered pore structures. Existing approaches of producing amorphous mesoporous metal silicates via sol–gel methods and heat-treatment of these materials to produce crystalline phases cause the pore structures in the amorphous phases to collapse. To overcome this challenge, carbon coating of amorphous mesoporous calcium silicate particles is carried out to retain the pore structure, while the material is heated to produce crystalline calcium silicate with calcium sulfate inclusions. The pore diameter in these materials is about 3.9 nm, with a surface area and a pore volume of 28.75 m 2 /g and 0.092 cm 2 /g, respectively. The mechanisms of carbon mineralization are investigated by reacting architected calcium silicate with 1 M Na 2 CO 3 and monitoring the evolution in the structural phases using operando wide-angle X-ray scattering (WAXS) measurements. Formation of stable calcium carbonate polymorph or calcite and metastable calcium carbonate polymorph or vaterite in pore and bulk fluids, respectively, resulting from the reaction between Na 2 CO 3 and CaSiO 3 , are noted. The mechanisms associated with carbon mineralization are delineated using ReaxFF molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. The surface dissolution reaction is initiated by 2H + ions that replace a Ca 2+ ion in the Ca–silicate matrix. Ca 2+ ions in the solution initially react with water to form calcium hydroxide and eventually form calcium (bi)carbonate. A slow and gradual increase in the formation of sodium silicate in the solution resulting from the reactions of silicic acid or the silicon dioxide reaction with sodium hydroxide is noted. When carbon mineralization occurs in environments bearing interfacial fluids, calcite is the dominant calcium carbonate polymorph, as determined using experiments with pore fluids and molecular-scale simulations. In conclusion, these studies provide fundamental insights into the mechanisms underlying the carbon mineralization of calcium silicate informed by experiments and molecular-scale simulations.

Calcium↗