About this Research Topic
The global push for sustainable development continues to strengthen the positioning of advanced materials towards reducing products’ environmental impact across a vast range of industries. Among the various families of advanced materials that have received critical attention, engineered lightweight materials (ELMs) have been acknowledged as key enablers of sustainable solutions.
From high-performance meta-materials, auxetic lightweight structures, and nature-inspired material systems to wood-based engineered composites, the multitudes of emerging ELMs have become pivotal in addressing issues around materials consumption, improving energy efficiency, and enhancing life-cycle performance across different industrial sectors. As the demand for resilient yet eco-friendly products and infrastructure grows, the exploration of ELMs for diverse applications will continue to gain prominence. Premised on the forgoing, concrete evaluations of how these materials perform, how they can be optimized and how they can be adapted to meet sustainable objectives while maintaining their performance integrity is a critical research challenge that requires a mix of technical solutions.
Despite the significant advancements in material science, several challenges remain in realizing the full potential of ELMs. In this spirit, the key problem addressed in this Research Topic is the need for optimized design, performance assessment, and sustainable integration of ELMs across diverse industries. More specifically:
-Performance under diverse loading regimes. The real-world applications of ELMs demand a thorough understanding of their behavior under complex and varying working conditions.
Ultimately, addressing the aforementioned goals requires a combination of theoretical modelling, data-driven modelling, experimental validation, and practical case studies that offer holistic views of ELMs’ potential. Therefore, this issue seeks studies and contributions demonstrating significant advancements in addressing these problems. This includes, but is not limited to contributions that:
• Develop and validate models that predict the performance of ELMs under realistic service conditions.
• Apply recent data-driven techniques centered around artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms for characterizing/modelling the performance or properties of ELMs for improved usage.
• Experimentally investigate the mechanical, thermal, and environmental properties of novel lightweight materials.
• Explore sustainable processing techniques and manufacturing advancements that can support scalable production (additive manufacturing, 3D/4D printing, etc).
• Provide case studies that showcase the successful deployment of ELMs in projects aimed at improving resource efficiency and reducing carbon footprints.
• Encourage interdisciplinary research that bridges the gap between material innovation and practical applications in industries like automotive, aerospace, consumer products, general transportation infrastructure, and renewable energy.
We welcome contributions from a broad range of disciplines, including materials science, structural engineering, computational modelling (numerical/physics-informed/AI), environmental engineering, and beyond. Potential authors are invited to submit original research papers, review articles, or case studies. We particularly encourage interdisciplinary contributions that address the nexus between sustainability, material performance, and cutting-edge modelling or characterization techniques. By addressing these challenges, researchers can contribute to the development of resilient and eco-friendly infrastructures that meet the growing demand for translational sustainable solutions towards a decarbonized economy.
From high-performance meta-materials, auxetic lightweight structures, and nature-inspired material systems to wood-based engineered composites, the multitudes of emerging ELMs have become pivotal in addressing issues around materials consumption, improving energy efficiency, and enhancing life-cycle performance across different industrial sectors. As the demand for resilient yet eco-friendly products and infrastructure grows, the exploration of ELMs for diverse applications will continue to gain prominence. Premised on the forgoing, concrete evaluations of how these materials perform, how they can be optimized and how they can be adapted to meet sustainable objectives while maintaining their performance integrity is a critical research challenge that requires a mix of technical solutions.
Despite the significant advancements in material science, several challenges remain in realizing the full potential of ELMs. In this spirit, the key problem addressed in this Research Topic is the need for optimized design, performance assessment, and sustainable integration of ELMs across diverse industries. More specifically:
-Performance under diverse loading regimes. The real-world applications of ELMs demand a thorough understanding of their behavior under complex and varying working conditions.
Ultimately, addressing the aforementioned goals requires a combination of theoretical modelling, data-driven modelling, experimental validation, and practical case studies that offer holistic views of ELMs’ potential. Therefore, this issue seeks studies and contributions demonstrating significant advancements in addressing these problems. This includes, but is not limited to contributions that:
• Develop and validate models that predict the performance of ELMs under realistic service conditions.
• Apply recent data-driven techniques centered around artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms for characterizing/modelling the performance or properties of ELMs for improved usage.
• Experimentally investigate the mechanical, thermal, and environmental properties of novel lightweight materials.
• Explore sustainable processing techniques and manufacturing advancements that can support scalable production (additive manufacturing, 3D/4D printing, etc).
• Provide case studies that showcase the successful deployment of ELMs in projects aimed at improving resource efficiency and reducing carbon footprints.
• Encourage interdisciplinary research that bridges the gap between material innovation and practical applications in industries like automotive, aerospace, consumer products, general transportation infrastructure, and renewable energy.
We welcome contributions from a broad range of disciplines, including materials science, structural engineering, computational modelling (numerical/physics-informed/AI), environmental engineering, and beyond. Potential authors are invited to submit original research papers, review articles, or case studies. We particularly encourage interdisciplinary contributions that address the nexus between sustainability, material performance, and cutting-edge modelling or characterization techniques. By addressing these challenges, researchers can contribute to the development of resilient and eco-friendly infrastructures that meet the growing demand for translational sustainable solutions towards a decarbonized economy.
Keywords: AI-enhanced modelling, Lightweight materials, Meta-materials, Bio-inspired lightweight materials, Data-driven modelling, Mechanics-based modelling, Advanced characterization, Sustainable lightweight structural materials
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
