Intelligent Design and Manufacturing of Advanced Structural-Functional Integrated Materials

To meet the growing demand for high-performance, lightweight, and intelligent materials in the aerospace, automotive, and energy/power sectors, engineering materials are undergoing a fundamental shift. The development paradigm is moving from passive load bearing to active adaptation, while material capabilities are evolving from single-function performance to multifunctional integration.

A new generation of advanced structural materials including lightweight alloys, architected/lattice materials, and biomimetic composites offers unprecedented freedom in composition and structural design, pushing beyond the limits of conventional materials. These materials not only deliver strong mechanical performance, but also enable integrated functions such as thermal management, energy absorption, wave transmission and absorption, magnetic and electrical response, and enhanced resistance to wear, corrosion, and oxidation. As a result, they are becoming a key foundation for intelligent structures and next-generation high-end manufacturing.
In parallel, rapid advances in artificial intelligence, digital technologies, and advanced manufacturing are accelerating a transition toward data-driven, intelligent, and high-precision material design and fabrication.

Key Challenges and Motivation

Despite strong momentum, several barriers still limit broader adoption and reliable deployment of structural–functional integrated materials:

1. High design complexity: Multi-scale and multi-physics coupling makes coordinated optimization of mechanical properties and functional performance difficult. Conventional simulation and experimental approaches remain slow and costly, while AI-driven inverse design and automated structure generation are still maturing.

2. Manufacturing difficulty: Advanced processing routes (including additive manufacturing) must meet stricter requirements for geometric complexity, heterogeneity, precision control, and in situ/online monitoring.

3. Unclear structure property function mechanisms: The governing mechanisms linking structure, properties, and functions including the role and evolution of microstructure are not yet fully understood.

4. Incomplete validation and reliability frameworks: Robust non-destructive evaluation (NDE) methods and reliable performance prediction tools are still limited, particularly for function evolution under complex service environments.

This Research Topic aims to address these challenges and provide scientific and engineering support to accelerate the deployment of advanced structural-functional integrated materials in high-end manufacturing.

Scope (including but not limited to)
We welcome contributions spanning experimental, computational, and data-driven approaches in the following areas:

1. Design, characterization, and mechanical behavior of advanced structural and functional materials

2. Manufacturing and processing technologies for structural functional integrated materials, including additive manufacturing and hybrid routes

3. AI-enabled material design and process optimization, including inverse design, surrogate modeling, and automated discovery

4. Application validation, case studies, and reliability assessment, including NDE methods and service-environment performance prediction

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• FAIR² DATA Direct Submission
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• FAIR² DATA Direct Submission
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Review

Keywords: Structural-functional integrated materials, lightweight materials, metamaterials, additive manufacturing, intelligent manufacturing, artificial intelligence design and optimization, application verification

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.