Architected materials over the last two decades have demonstrated unique combinations of properties previously unavailable in engineered materials. However, a variety of the envisioned applications for these materials such as, e.g., lightweight energy absorption, require a systematic understanding of mechanical responses across deformation rates. To date, the vast design space of architected materials along with fabrication and characterization hurdles have resulted in only a small subset of architected materials being characterized into the dynamic regime. Progress in dynamic characterization has suffered due to (i) challenges with scaling-up the production of architected materials into volumes and quantities that are appropriate for standard dynamic characterization methods, and (ii) the lack of dynamic characterization methods at the micro- and nanoscales that can obtain useful metrics from small (currently available) volumes of architected materials.
Here, we discuss our efforts leveraging microscale prototyping to (i) develop characterization routes for architected materials in dynamic conditions reaching strain rates of 106 s−1, and (ii) leveraging said techniques to guide the design of future architected materials (across length scales) for wave-propagation and impact-mitigation scenarios. Specifically, we present recent efforts developing non-contact laser-based characterization techniques to rapidly characterize the elastodynamic responses of architected materials, demonstrating a design framework that allows decoupling of the quasi-static properties and the effective wave speeds within. Second, we present efforts that leverage the laser-induced particle impact test (LIPIT) to determine cratering mechanisms in architected materials, demonstrating the use of morphology to tune the crater morphology upon impacts up to 500 m/s.
