Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Inverse Design Machine And Making A Designer Impact-Mitigating Architectured Isotropic Structure

Patent Number: 11,475,185

Abstract

An inverse design machine for making a manufactured article that includes a designer Impact-mitigating architectured isotropic structure includes: an input unit that receives a primary structure; a primary structure analyzer that receives the primary structure from the input unit and determines primary properties of the primary structure; a structure adjuster that receives the primary properties from the primary structure analyzer, receives impact-mitigating properties from a structural property manager, and produces the designer Impact-mitigating architectured isotropic structure from the impact-mitigating properties; and the structural property manager that provides the impact-mitigating properties to the structure adjuster.

patent description

(1) Disclosed is a method of operating a manufacturing machine for manufactured article with the aid of an inverse design machine, the method comprising: providing the inverse design machine with a primary structure for a manufactured article and with impact-mitigating properties for the manufacturing machine, the primary structure comprising a plurality of structural members arranged in the primary structure that collectively provide primary properties to the manufactured article and that comprise a primary shear modulus and a primary bulk modulus that provide a primary torsional rigidity and a primary compression rigidity of the manufactured article being made by the manufactured article; and the impact-mitigating properties comprising an impact-mitigating shear modulus and an impact-mitigating bulk modulus that provide an impact-mitigating torsional rigidity and an impact-mitigating compression rigidity for the manufactured article being made by the manufacturing machine, such that the impact-mitigating properties provide the manufactured article with greater structural impact mitigation than the primary properties; receiving the primary structure from a primary designer; initiating a point-by-point analysis on the primary structure in the inverse design machine; determining the primary properties of the primary structure with a primary structure analyzer of the inverse design machine; receiving, by a structure adjuster of the inverse design machine, the primary properties from the primary structure analyzer and the impact-mitigating properties from a structural property manager of the inverse design machine; adjusting, by the structure adjuster, the structural members in the primary structure until the structural members collectively conform to the impact-mitigating properties such that the primary structure is structurally modified into a designer impact-mitigating architectured isotropic structure that comprises the impact-mitigating properties; controlling the operation manufacturing machine in accordance with the designer impact-mitigating architectured isotropic structure by the inverse design machine; and forming, by the manufacturing machine under control of the designer impact-mitigating architectured isotropic structure from the inverse design machine, the manufactured article that comprises the designer impact-mitigating architectured isotropic structure instead of the primary structure.

(2) Disclosed is a method of operating a manufacturing machine for manufactured article with the aid of an inverse design machine, the method comprising: providing the inverse design machine with a primary structure for a manufactured article and with impact-mitigating properties for the manufacturing machine, the primary structure comprising a plurality of structural members arranged in the primary structure that collectively provide primary properties to the manufactured article and that comprise a primary shear modulus and a primary bulk modulus that provide a primary torsional rigidity and a primary compression rigidity of the manufactured article being made by the manufactured article; and the impact-mitigating properties comprising an impact-mitigating shear modulus and an impact-mitigating bulk modulus that provide an impact-mitigating torsional rigidity and an impact-mitigating compression rigidity for the manufactured article being made by the manufacturing machine, such that the impact-mitigating properties provide the manufactured article with greater structural impact mitigation than the primary properties; receiving the primary structure from a primary designer; initiating a point-by-point analysis on the primary structure in the inverse design machine; determining the primary properties of the primary structure with a primary structure analyzer of the inverse design machine; receiving, by a structure adjuster of the inverse design machine, the primary properties from the primary structure analyzer and the impact-mitigating properties from a structural property manager of the inverse design machine; adjusting, by the structure adjuster, the structural members in the primary structure until the structural members collectively conform to the impact-mitigating properties such that the primary structure is structurally modified into a designer impact-mitigating architectured isotropic structure that comprises the impact-mitigating properties; controlling the operation manufacturing machine in accordance with the designer impact-mitigating architectured isotropic structure by the inverse design machine; initiating formation of the manufactured article by controlling a position of a print head of the manufacturing machine under control of the inverse design machine in accord with the designer impact-mitigating architectured isotropic structure; constantly determining the position of the print head of the manufacturing machine during formation of the manufactured article; constantly providing the inverse design machine with the position of the print head; repetitively performing in the inverse design machine, at frequent intervals during formation of the manufactured article, corrections to the position of the printer head based on designer impact-mitigating architectured isotropic structure and to monitor completion of formation of the manufactured article by the manufacturing machine communicating corrections to the position of the printer head from the inverse design machine to the manufacturing machine; correcting the position of the printer head by the manufacturing machine based on the corrections received from the inverse design machine; and completing formation, by the manufacturing machine under control of the designer impact-mitigating architectured isotropic structure from the inverse design machine, the manufactured article that comprises the designer impact-mitigating architectured isotropic structure instead of the primary structure.

(3) Disclosed is an inverse design machine for making an manufactured article that comprises a designer impact-mitigating architectured isotropic structure, the inverse design machine comprises: an input unit that receives a primary structure; a primary structure analyzer in communication with the input unit and that receives the primary structure from the input unit and determines primary properties of the primary structure from the primary structure; a structure adjuster in communication with the primary structure analyzer and that receives the primary properties from the primary structure analyzer, receives impact-mitigating properties from a structural property manager, and produces the designer impact-mitigating architectured isotropic structure for the manufactured article from the primary properties and the impact-mitigating properties; and the structural property manager in communication with the structure adjuster and that provides the impact-mitigating properties to the structure adjuster.

Features

This algorithm enables the creation of designer mechanical responses, responses that conventional unstructured materials cannot provide. It is a new approach to creating disordered but structured materials with unique or non-traditional mechanical responses using structures whose size-scales can span from meters to nanometers. The current (i.e. finite element) approach to designing impact mitigating materials is primarily based on trial and error discovery and intuition rather than a systematic theoretical approach. Our “inverse design” approach identifies specific structures that are non-intuitive and unlike other architectured materials such as mechanical metamaterials that have a periodic structure and thus possess anisotropic mechanical properties, our materials have isotropic mechanical properties that are specific to the requirements for a particular impact mitigation application.

Created August 23, 2022, Updated December 15, 2023