Tobias A. Schaedler

Ultralight Metallic Microlattices

A route is developed for fabricating extremely low-density, hollow-strut metallic lattices. Ultralight (<10 milligrams per cubic centimeter) cellular materials are desirable for thermal insulation; battery electrodes; catalyst supports; and acoustic, vibration, or shock energy damping. We present ultralight materials based on periodic hollow-tube microlattices. These materials are fabricated by starting with a template formed by self-propagating photopolymer waveguide prototyping, coating the template by electroless nickel plating, and subsequently etching away the template. The resulting metallic microlattices exhibit densities ρ ≥ 0.9 milligram per cubic centimeter, complete recovery after compression exceeding 50% strain, and energy absorption similar to elastomers. Young’s modulus E scales with density as E ~ ρ2, in contrast to the E ~ ρ3 scaling observed for ultralight aerogels and carbon nanotube foams with stochastic architecture. We attribute these properties to structural hierarchy at the nanometer, micrometer, and millimeter scales.

Additive manufacturing of polymer-derived ceramics

Printing ceramics into complex shapes Some materials, such as thermoplastics and metals, are naturally suited to being 3D printed because the individual particles can be fused together by applying heat. In contrast, ceramics do not fuse together the same way. Eckel et al. developed a way to pattern specific preceramic monomers using either 3D printing or stereolithography into complex, curved, and porous shapes. Upon heating, they observed almost no shrinkage, and the formed parts showed exceptional thermal stability. Science, this issue p. 58 Preceramic monomers can be patterned, using stereolithography or 3D printing, into complex shapes and cellular architectures. The extremely high melting point of many ceramics adds challenges to additive manufacturing as compared with metals and polymers. Because ceramics cannot be cast or machined easily, three-dimensional (3D) printing enables a big leap in geometrical flexibility. We report preceramic monomers that are cured with ultraviolet light in a stereolithography 3D printer or through a patterned mask, forming 3D polymer structures that can have complex shape and cellular architecture. These polymer structures can be pyrolyzed to a ceramic with uniform shrinkage and virtually no porosity. Silicon oxycarbide microlattice and honeycomb cellular materials fabricated with this approach exhibit higher strength than ceramic foams of similar density. Additive manufacturing of such materials is of interest for propulsion components, thermal protection systems, porous burners, microelectromechanical systems, and electronic device packaging.

3D printing of high-strength aluminium alloys

Metal-based additive manufacturing, or three-dimensional (3D) printing, is a potentially disruptive technology across multiple industries, including the aerospace, biomedical and automotive industries. Building up metal components layer by layer increases design freedom and manufacturing flexibility, thereby enabling complex geometries, increased product customization and shorter time to market, while eliminating traditional economy-of-scale constraints. However, currently only a few alloys, the most relevant being AlSi10Mg, TiAl6V4, CoCr and Inconel 718, can be reliably printed; the vast majority of the more than 5,500 alloys in use today cannot be additively manufactured because the melting and solidification dynamics during the printing process lead to intolerable microstructures with large columnar grains and periodic cracks. Here we demonstrate that these issues can be resolved by introducing nanoparticles of nucleants that control solidification during additive manufacturing. We selected the nucleants on the basis of crystallographic information and assembled them onto 7075 and 6061 series aluminium alloy powders. After functionalization with the nucleants, we found that these high-strength aluminium alloys, which were previously incompatible with additive manufacturing, could be processed successfully using selective laser melting. Crack-free, equiaxed (that is, with grains roughly equal in length, width and height), fine-grained microstructures were achieved, resulting in material strengths comparable to that of wrought material. Our approach to metal-based additive manufacturing is applicable to a wide range of alloys and can be implemented using a range of additive machines. It thus provides a foundation for broad industrial applicability, including where electron-beam melting or directed-energy-deposition techniques are used instead of selective laser melting, and will enable additive manufacturing of other alloy systems, such as non-weldable nickel superalloys and intermetallics. Furthermore, this technology could be used in conventional processing such as in joining, casting and injection moulding, in which solidification cracking and hot tearing are also common issues.

Microlattices as architected thin films: Analysis of mechanical properties and high strain elastic recovery

Ordered periodic microlattices with densities from 0.5 mg/cm3 to 500 mg/cm3 are fabricated by depositing various thin film materials (Au, Cu, Ni, SiO2, poly(C8H4F4)) onto sacrificial polymer lattice templates. Youngs modulus and strength are measured in compression and the density scaling is determined. At low relative densities, recovery from compressive strains of 50% and higher is observed, independent of lattice material. An analytical model is shown to accurately predict the transition between recoverable “pseudo-superelastic” and irrecoverable plastic deformation for all constituent materials. These materials are of interest for energy storage applications, deployable structures, and for acoustic, shock, and vibration damping.

Toward Lighter, Stiffer Materials

Lightweight cellular (porous) materials are assembled from prefabricated building blocks. [Also see Report by Cheung and Gershenfeld] For hundreds or even thousands of years, humans have developed ever lighter and stronger materials, including alloys, polymers, and composites. Recently, these efforts have been joined by a different approach to lightweight materials: the introduction of carefully engineered open structure into solid materials to create cellular materials (see the figure). On page 1219 of this issue, Cheung and Gershenfeld (1) present a fabrication method for cellular materials that enables them to reversibly assemble cellular composite materials with tailored properties.

Nanolattices: An Emerging Class of Mechanical Metamaterials

In 1903, Alexander Graham Bell developed a design principle to generate lightweight, mechanically robust lattice structures based on triangular cells; this has since found broad application in lightweight design. Over one hundred years later, the same principle is being used in the fabrication of nanolattice materials, namely lattice structures composed of nanoscale constituents. Taking advantage of the size-dependent properties typical of nanoparticles, nanowires, and thin films, nanolattices redefine the limits of the accessible material-property space throughout different disciplines. Herein, the exceptional mechanical performance of nanolattices, including their ultrahigh strength, damage tolerance, and stiffness, are reviewed, and their potential for multifunctional applications beyond mechanics is examined. The efficient integration of architecture and size-affected properties is key to further develop nanolattices. The introduction of a hierarchical architecture is an effective tool in enhancing mechanical properties, and the eventual goal of nanolattice design may be to replicate the intricate hierarchies and functionalities observed in biological materials. Additive manufacturing and self-assembly techniques enable lattice design at the nanoscale; the scaling-up of nanolattice fabrication is currently the major challenge to their widespread use in technological applications.

Analysis of the effects of wall temperature swing on reciprocating internal combustion engine processes

A thermal wall temperature swing model was built to capture the transient effects of various material properties and coating layers on the intra-cycle wall temperature of an internal combustion engine. This model was used with a thermodynamic engine simulation to predict and analyze the effects of different types of in-cylinder insulation on engine performance. Coatings that allow the surface temperature to swing in response to the gas’ cyclical heat flux enable approximately 1/3 of the energy that was prevented from leaving the gas during expansion to be recovered while improving volumetric efficiency. Reductions in compression work due to better volumetric efficiency and less heat transfer from the walls to the gas accounted for half of the improvements, while additional work extraction during combustion and expansion accounted for the other half. As load increases, the temperature swing and benefits derived from it also increase. NSFC improvements of 0.5% to 1% were seen with a highly swinging coating in the throttled regime for a realistic engine geometry and coating area, up to 2.5% at high loads.

HYBRID HOLLOW MICROLATTICES WITH UNIQUE COMBINATION OF STIFFNESS AND DAMPING

Hybrid micro-architected materials with unique combinations of high stiffness, high damping, and low density are presented. We demonstrate a scalable manufacturing process to fabricate hollow microlattices with a sandwich wall architecture comprising an elastomeric core and metallic skins. In this configuration, the metallic skins provide stiffness and strength, whereas the elastomeric core provides constrained-layer damping. This damping mechanism is effective under any strain amplitude, and at any relative density, in stark contrast with the structural damping mechanism exhibited by ultralight metallic or ceramic architected materials, which requires large strain and densities lower than a fraction of a percent. We present an analytical model for stiffness and constrained-layer damping of hybrid hollow microlattices, and verify it with finite elements simulations and experimental measurements. Subsequently, this model is adopted in optimal design studies to identify hybrid microlattice geometries which provide ideal combinations of high stiffness and damping and low density. Finally, a previously derived analytical model for structural damping of ultralight metallic microlattices is extended to hybrid lattices and used to show that ultralight hybrid designs are more efficient than purely metallic ones. [DOI: 10.1115/1.4038672]