A stronger ‘sandwich’: Research & Innovation

Sabrina Nilufar’s research involves sandwiches but not the kind that are eaten.

Instead, the Southern Illinois University, Carbondale researcher hopes to improve the ultrastrong sandwich materials hidden in the sleek, smooth and shiny car panels and airplane wings that people trust with their lives.

An assistant professor at SIU Carbondale’s School of Mechanical, Aerospace and Materials Engineering, Nilufar is working on ways to more easily construct these ubiquitous materials, improving efficiency while saving time and energy. She recently received a two-year, $200,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to study how to make specially designed structures using additive manufacturing, one of the fastest-emerging engineering research areas in the world.

Sabrina Nilufar, assistant professor at SIU Carbondale’s School of Mechanical, Aerospace and Materials Engineering, is working on ways to more easily and efficiently construct so-called sandwich materials used in everything from automotive to marine and aerospace applications. Image courtesy of Russell Bailey

Sandwich structures generally consist of two outer face sheets separated by a lightweight, low-density core structure or foam. The engineering concept has found its way into myriad applications, including aerospace, sport, marine, military, thermal insulation, vibration and acoustic isolation, and automotive.

The traditional manufacturing process for sandwich materials, however, can be wasteful and limited. In contrast, additive manufacturing allows builders to fabricate objects or custom-tailor parts with complex geometries directly from the 3D models to meet specific applications.

The additive manufacturing process may hold the key to increased efficiency and better-quality parts, especially when combined with triply periodic minimal surface architecture. TPMS architecture uses complex geometries found in nature to improve strength and weight ratios.

“The aim of my research is to set a solid foundation of manufacturing sandwiches with TPMS-based core lattice for specific engineering applications,” Nilufar said.