Integrated structures and materials design

This paper introduces the concept of Integrated Structures and Materials Design (ISMD). ISMD combines materials engineering and structural engineering for the purpose of more effectively achieving targeted structural performance, by adopting material composite properties as the shared link. An application example, design of a bridge deck link-slab, is used to illustrate the essential elements of ISMD. It is shown that the composite hardened properties—tensile strain capacity, microcrack width, and Young’s Modulus, as well as composite self-consolidating fresh properties, are amongst the most important composite parameters that govern the targeted structural performance of safety, durability and ease of design and implementation. These are also properties that can be controlled in an Engineered Cementitious Composite—an ultra ductile concrete, by tailoring the ingredients for desired fiber, matrix and interface micromechanical parameters. Broad implications of ISMD on educational approach, research collaboration, and next generation infrastructure development, are briefly discussed.