WEBVTT 00:14.239 --> 00:16.239 Nature is the ultimate designer and 00:16.239 --> 00:18.350 incorporating nature inspired designs 00:18.350 --> 00:20.572 into coastal infrastructure can provide 00:20.572 --> 00:22.739 maximum resilience as well as economic 00:22.739 --> 00:24.739 environmental and social benefits . 00:25.139 --> 00:27.469 However , doing so has been difficult 00:27.479 --> 00:29.590 because of constraints in traditional 00:29.590 --> 00:32.319 manufacturing , rapid advancements in 00:32.330 --> 00:34.441 additive manufacturing and pioneering 00:34.450 --> 00:36.479 research by the US army engineer 00:36.490 --> 00:38.919 research and Development center or DIC 00:39.090 --> 00:41.419 have opened new possibilities . Looking 00:41.430 --> 00:43.900 to capitalize a team at DIC is studying 00:43.909 --> 00:45.639 how 3D printing can create 00:45.650 --> 00:48.279 geometrically complex structures needed 00:48.290 --> 00:51.439 to mimic nature as an added first time 00:51.450 --> 00:53.394 innovation . This engineering with 00:53.394 --> 00:57.150 nature or N project beneficially uses 00:57.159 --> 00:59.590 dredged material as feedstock for the 00:59.599 --> 01:01.369 printers in the environmental 01:01.380 --> 01:03.324 laboratory . We've been looking at 01:03.324 --> 01:05.436 added manufacturing for the past five 01:05.436 --> 01:07.380 years to understand the health and 01:07.380 --> 01:09.102 safety of potential ultra fine 01:09.102 --> 01:10.769 emissions as well as printing 01:10.769 --> 01:12.936 structures that can potentially remove 01:12.936 --> 01:14.824 contaminants from water . But the 01:14.824 --> 01:16.491 innovation of this particular 01:16.491 --> 01:19.580 engineering with nature project is that 01:19.589 --> 01:21.645 we noticed that a lot of the habitat 01:21.645 --> 01:23.756 infrastructure that's deployed in the 01:23.756 --> 01:25.922 environment are very simple geometries 01:25.922 --> 01:28.769 like cylinders and cubes . We felt that 01:28.779 --> 01:30.949 additive manufacturing can add 01:30.959 --> 01:33.220 innovation and nature inspired design 01:33.230 --> 01:35.452 to a lot of these structures that could 01:35.452 --> 01:38.099 better serve our coastlines . Uh the 01:38.110 --> 01:40.332 army Corps of Engineers in the nation . 01:40.332 --> 01:42.221 We are able to print more complex 01:42.221 --> 01:44.332 geometries with 3D printing and added 01:44.332 --> 01:46.332 manufacturing . It allows you to do 01:46.332 --> 01:48.554 things that traditional manufacturing , 01:48.554 --> 01:50.777 subtractive manufacturing doesn't allow 01:50.777 --> 01:52.832 you to do . And so you can get these 01:52.832 --> 01:54.999 very complex structures that look more 01:54.999 --> 01:54.652 nature inspired such as with the 01:54.663 --> 01:56.972 mangrove roots or other habitats such 01:56.983 --> 01:59.205 as bird nests that aren't traditionally 01:59.205 --> 02:00.705 available with subtractive 02:00.705 --> 02:02.372 manufacturing . What's really 02:02.372 --> 02:04.205 fascinating about 3D printing of 02:04.205 --> 02:06.803 manufacturing is there's a myriad of 02:06.813 --> 02:09.042 opportunities here to integrate this 02:09.052 --> 02:11.763 into nature and provide uh ecological 02:11.772 --> 02:14.675 benefits uh and also social and 02:14.686 --> 02:17.546 economic benefits . And some of those 02:17.555 --> 02:19.505 targeted uh benefits that we're 02:19.516 --> 02:22.046 pursuing is habitat restoration where 02:22.055 --> 02:24.626 we can actually take this material and 02:24.636 --> 02:28.425 improve habitat that may be um degraded 02:28.436 --> 02:31.046 or destroyed . The chief of engineers 02:31.055 --> 02:34.636 has a goal to increase our beneficial 02:34.645 --> 02:38.085 use of dredge material from 30% to 70% . 02:38.095 --> 02:40.619 By the year 2030 . It became clear to 02:40.630 --> 02:43.020 us that we could start using sediment 02:43.190 --> 02:45.179 as a resource to create a paradigm 02:45.190 --> 02:47.600 shift from it's a waste material that 02:47.610 --> 02:50.119 needs to be disposed of to a clean 02:50.130 --> 02:52.352 environmental resource that can be used 02:52.352 --> 02:54.899 on site on demand where it's needed to 02:54.910 --> 02:58.550 3d print Nature Inspired design for 02:58.559 --> 03:00.550 coastal resilience , habitat 03:00.559 --> 03:02.710 restoration and habitat creation . We 03:02.720 --> 03:04.609 have a long history of toxicology 03:04.609 --> 03:06.664 expertise with the environmental lab 03:06.664 --> 03:08.831 and we know the vast majority of these 03:08.831 --> 03:10.720 judge materials are clean and the 03:10.720 --> 03:12.720 little bit that isn't that has some 03:12.720 --> 03:14.776 contamination in it . We through our 03:14.776 --> 03:16.887 methods , we're working on developing 03:16.887 --> 03:18.442 ways to sequester it . This 03:18.442 --> 03:20.664 cross-disciplinary effort benefits from 03:20.664 --> 03:22.331 the expertise of multiple dic 03:22.331 --> 03:24.164 laboratories . The environmental 03:24.164 --> 03:26.220 laboratory is leading the project in 03:26.220 --> 03:27.998 its conception and studying the 03:27.998 --> 03:30.210 features and geometries most relevant 03:30.220 --> 03:33.130 for 3D printing as habitat and the 03:33.139 --> 03:35.306 coastal and hydraulics laboratory will 03:35.306 --> 03:37.361 perform hydrodynamic modeling of the 03:37.361 --> 03:40.380 resulting structures . Meanwhile , the 03:40.389 --> 03:42.611 project also benefits from the additive 03:42.611 --> 03:44.722 manufacturing expertise from both the 03:44.722 --> 03:46.910 geotechnical and structures laboratory 03:46.919 --> 03:48.752 and the construction engineering 03:48.752 --> 03:51.020 research laboratory . Researchers from 03:51.029 --> 03:53.085 these labs are applying knowledge to 03:53.085 --> 03:55.429 explore the possibility of large format 03:55.440 --> 03:57.880 prints using dredged material directly 03:57.889 --> 04:00.500 in the field . Large format in general 04:00.509 --> 04:02.676 is just like smaller scale printing or 04:02.676 --> 04:06.000 at least our facility here where you 04:06.009 --> 04:08.231 deposit a layer , but we can do it much 04:08.231 --> 04:10.453 bigger and that gives us the capability 04:10.453 --> 04:12.676 to manufacture much larger parts faster 04:12.676 --> 04:14.676 than you can do it with traditional 04:14.676 --> 04:16.676 manufacturing and it gives us a lot 04:16.676 --> 04:18.898 more freedom in the designs that we can 04:18.898 --> 04:21.065 do . So we wouldn't be able to produce 04:21.065 --> 04:20.459 the parts that we would want to that 04:20.470 --> 04:22.526 are nature inspired with traditional 04:22.526 --> 04:24.637 manufacturing , but we can do it with 04:24.637 --> 04:26.748 additives . We've spent a lot of time 04:26.748 --> 04:28.970 in recent years using a lot of military 04:28.970 --> 04:31.081 engineering projects that are focused 04:31.081 --> 04:33.137 on what we call manufacturing at the 04:33.137 --> 04:34.970 point of need . So being able to 04:34.970 --> 04:36.970 produce something there as close as 04:36.970 --> 04:36.893 possible to where it's actually being 04:36.903 --> 04:38.959 needed instead of like a factory and 04:38.959 --> 04:41.181 then shipping it out . But , you know , 04:41.181 --> 04:43.403 take that and then putting that there , 04:43.403 --> 04:45.292 like say on a shore side and then 04:45.292 --> 04:47.292 pulling dredge material from that , 04:47.292 --> 04:46.895 running it through some like robotic 04:46.906 --> 04:49.128 system or whatever . And actually being 04:49.128 --> 04:51.184 able to print their on site would be 04:51.184 --> 04:53.406 massively beneficial for a whole lot of 04:53.406 --> 04:55.462 reasons . As this research begins to 04:55.462 --> 04:57.017 explore the use of additive 04:57.017 --> 04:59.184 manufacturing to print nature inspired 04:59.184 --> 05:00.906 infrastructure , using natural 05:00.906 --> 05:02.795 feedstock building materials , er 05:02.795 --> 05:04.684 hosted a workshop with government 05:04.684 --> 05:07.246 industry and academia in February 2024 05:07.665 --> 05:09.795 to foster further collaboration and 05:09.805 --> 05:12.390 spark innovative ideas . The workshop 05:12.399 --> 05:14.399 included a diverse group of subject 05:14.399 --> 05:16.177 matter experts in the fields of 05:16.177 --> 05:19.029 material science , toxicology , ecology , 05:19.040 --> 05:21.250 mechanical engineering , chemical 05:21.260 --> 05:23.538 engineering , landscape , architecture , 05:23.538 --> 05:25.339 social science , and dredging 05:25.350 --> 05:27.619 technology . What excites me the most 05:27.630 --> 05:29.686 about this new project where they're 05:29.686 --> 05:31.908 looking that print 3d , printing dredge 05:31.908 --> 05:33.630 material is it's really taking 05:33.630 --> 05:35.741 advantage of everything that we think 05:35.741 --> 05:35.114 about when it comes to engineering with 05:35.125 --> 05:37.014 nature . The opportunity is local 05:37.014 --> 05:39.244 materials use our principles of 05:39.255 --> 05:41.199 engineering to sort of improve the 05:41.199 --> 05:44.234 performance of both ecosystem and you 05:44.244 --> 05:46.466 know , ensuring safety of the coastline 05:46.466 --> 05:48.688 and doing that in a way that you know , 05:48.688 --> 05:50.688 contributes back to the ecosystem . 05:50.688 --> 05:52.633 That's really exciting . It's this 05:52.633 --> 05:54.466 really beautiful opportunity for 05:54.466 --> 05:56.577 advancing and processing , you know , 05:56.577 --> 05:58.800 manufacturing materials science and the 05:58.800 --> 06:00.744 ecosystem in which we work in what 06:00.744 --> 06:02.911 excites me the most about bio inspired 06:02.911 --> 06:05.630 architecture and uh bio derived 06:05.640 --> 06:08.589 materials is that nature has spent 06:09.200 --> 06:12.059 about a billion years , optimizing 06:12.070 --> 06:14.140 structure . Uh Humans have only been 06:14.149 --> 06:17.459 around doing technology for well , not 06:17.470 --> 06:20.100 a billion years . So we get to really 06:20.109 --> 06:23.010 learn from nature and how to make 06:23.019 --> 06:25.380 better structures . This workshop 06:25.390 --> 06:27.168 brings people from of different 06:27.168 --> 06:30.160 backgrounds and interests all together 06:30.390 --> 06:32.612 and we get to work collaboratively . So 06:32.612 --> 06:34.501 to solve problems that need to be 06:34.501 --> 06:36.612 solved , that we've identified what's 06:36.612 --> 06:38.625 extremely exciting is it seems like 06:38.635 --> 06:40.302 we're only limited by our own 06:40.302 --> 06:42.524 imagination . Uh So , one of the things 06:42.524 --> 06:44.894 that we're targeting in this uh project 06:44.904 --> 06:46.904 is actually bringing subject matter 06:46.904 --> 06:49.404 experts together to hopefully inspire 06:49.415 --> 06:52.984 each other and inspire some designs to 06:52.994 --> 06:55.774 use 3D printing to uh improve all these 06:55.785 --> 06:56.885 things that we're talking about .