UNLV has entered into a $4.8 million cooperative agreement with the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) to investigate locally sourced materials to promote the rapid manufacturing of safe structures for civilian and military operations in challenging worldwide environments.
The goal is to generate an advanced AI-database using data from experiments and multiscale high-performance computations. The database can provide the public and the Department of War suggestions for natural materials in different regions of the world that can be used to manufacture bio-degradable and ultra-lightweight infrastructure and protection panels that can withstand blast and impact loads.
An interdisciplinary team, led by UNLV mechanical engineering professor Brendan O’Toole, is collaborating with the ERDC, the research and development arm of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The project launched this fall with the potential for an additional four option years.
According to O’Toole, fiberglass fibers are the typical reinforcement structure in composite materials for infrastructure applications. But there are natural fibers from around the world — hemp, for example — that could replace fiberglass in some of these structures.
“Hemp is a byproduct of a plant that can be processed into fairly strong fibers,” said O’Toole. “It’s been used as ropes for hundreds of years, but it could also be used as reinforcement in polymers for composite structures.”
The team will review and build upon existing worldwide data for well-known materials, like hemp, but also potentially discover lesser-known materials that could be harnessed for both military and public use.
The U.S. Army envisions operations in ever-challenging, complex settings or locations with limited logistics or transportation networks.
Potential operations in these settings are anticipated to pose a daunting challenge in terms of constructing relevant facilities that provide shelter for DOW personnel without compromising their safety. The use of locally sourced materials would simplify this task and reduce the risks and costs associated with transporting supplies typically used in current construction practices.
ERDC’s Installations and Operational Environments research program and the UNLV collaborative research program share objectives, and this effort will provide the military with alternative methods to rapidly and cost-effectively build structures in distant locations using locally available additive materials.
The research will include studying ways to enhance the performance of these materials and understand how their characteristics would change under local conditions such as exposure to heat, humidity, or bacteria.
“The U.S. Army is already very resourceful," O’Toole said. “But part of the project would be determining what processing method would work best for these materials and be fast and efficient to use in a temporary manufacturing facility.”
While the investigation of these materials is just getting underway, a long-term goal of the potential five-year research program is to fabricate panels and structurally evaluate them. Unique blast testing facilities at the University of Mississippi will be employed as the project moves to later stages. Other collaborators include the University of Nevada, Reno, and Mako Advanced Materials, a local manufacturing company.
The partnership with the local company is another unique feature of the project, according to O’Toole.
“It’s one thing for us to make a panel in the lab,” O’Toole said. “But being able to scale it up for something that could be made in a production-like facility around the world is another thing altogether. We’re excited to be partnering with a local company to make it happen.”
