Sandia National Labs Academic Programs Collaboration Report

rapidly adjusted to address a new set of performance requirements brought about by ever-changing national security threats. The LDRD project team, led by Sandia PI Brad Boyce, focused on three theme areas: (1) inventing, building, and testing completely new lattice architectures that possess unique abilities to mitigate harsh structural environments; (2) employing gradient based optimization strategies to enable generative design of architectures tailored to meet specific requirements; and (3) understanding the role of manufacturing defects on the performance of these

as-printed lattices. In parallel, Texas A&M developed the capability to print such lattices in a nickel-titanium shape memory alloy with precise compositional control necessary to maximize the functional benefits of these alloys. This three-year project that ended in 2021 has spawned several new efforts, including a funded collaboration with the Air Force. This project led to two filed patents and eleven published journal articles, including the most recent one in Materials & Design.

Sandia materials scientist Brad Boyce watches as a 3D-printed part is scanned. Modern 3D printing capabilities were leveraged to create the interpenetrating lattice metamaterials.

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2021-2022 Collaboration Report