Developing Multifunctionally Optimal composite Structures for construction and transportation applications with an emphasis on environmental sustainability

Project Information

MULTIOpStruct

Grant agreement ID: 101103218

DOI

10.3030/101103218

Project closed

EC signature date 7 April 2023

Start date 1 December 2023

End date 30 November 2025

Funded under

• Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)

Total cost

No data

EU contribution

€ 175 920,00

Coordinated by

KATHOLIEKE UNIVERSITEIT LEUVEN
Belgium

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - MULTIOpStruct (Developing Multifunctionally Optimal composite Structures for construction and transportation applications with an emphasis on environmental sustainability)

Reporting period: 2023-12-01 to 2025-11-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Europe is facing an unprecedented climate emergency: the record-breaking heatwaves of 2022 caused over 12,000 deaths and the worst drought on the continent in 500 years. A major driver of this crisis is the construction and transportation sectors, which collectively accounted for approximately 60% of the EU’s greenhouse gas emissions in 2020. Despite existing policies (e.g. Circular Economy Action Plan, European Green Deal, and Fit for 55), these industries have been slow to modernize, in large part because of their reliance on legacy component architectures with limited life cycles and suboptimal performance.

In response, MultiOpStruct seeks to develop an integrated design environment that addresses the urgent ecological and societal need for more sustainable, eco-friendly, and commercially viable structures. Adopting a “material-by-design” outlook, the project combines cutting-edge research in computational mechanics, additive manufacturing (AM), and artificial intelligence (AI) to create optimally tailored composite structures. By doing so, MultiOpStruct aims to reduce fuel dependency, decrease greenhouse gas emissions, and contribute to mitigating climate change impacts such as glacier retreat.

Context and Motivation
Climate Crisis and Societal Impact

Unprecedented Heatwaves and Drought: The year 2022 saw extreme heat and drought in Europe, causing thousands of deaths and massive environmental and economic damage.
High Emissions Footprint: The construction and transportation sectors remain heavily reliant on fossil fuels and outdated technology, making them major contributors to greenhouse gas emissions.
Policy and Strategic Landscape

EU Green Deal and Fit for 55: The urgency to limit global warming and transition towards greener industries is underscored by policy frameworks emphasizing reduced emissions and circular economic strategies.
Circular Economy Action Plan: Encourages material efficiency, extended product lifecycles, and innovative design to minimize the environmental impact of industry sectors.
Technological Barriers

Legacy Component Architectures: Conventional manufacturing and design approaches constrain advancements in efficiency and sustainability, leading to short product lifecycles.
Need for Novel Methodologies: Current computational and experimental tools for designing high-performance, eco-friendly composites are often too slow, too costly, or insufficiently accurate.

Overall Objectives
Develop a Rapid, High-Fidelity Physics-Based Modelling Approach

Enhanced Analysis of Complex Components: Provide robust, custom-fit simulation methods to accurately predict mechanical, thermal, and acoustic performance of novel composite materials.
Accelerated Design Cycles: Reduce computational overhead without compromising accuracy, fostering faster iteration in both research and industrial design workflows.
Establish a Hybrid Multiscale-AI Topology Optimization Toolbox

Multifunctional Lightweight Composites: Integrate artificial intelligence with multiscale mechanics to tailor composite structures that are both lightweight and resilient, featuring improved thermal and vibro-acoustic isolation.
Additive Manufacturing Readiness: Ensure that the designs are fully compatible with cutting-edge 3D printing processes, enabling efficient, large-scale production of optimized components.
Reduce Environmental Impact and Fuel Dependency

Lower Greenhouse Gas Emissions: By improving energy efficiency and extending component lifespans, the project helps decrease reliance on fossil fuels in construction and transportation.
Mitigate Climate Change Consequences: From addressing glacier retreat to improving air quality in urban centers, the optimized structures align with the EU’s sustainability and resilience goals.
Pathway to Commercial and Societal Impact

Industry Adoption: Demonstrate cost-effectiveness and performance benefits to facilitate rapid uptake by key stakeholders (e.g. transport manufacturers, construction firms).
Policy Alignment and Public Engagement: Support and reinforce EU-wide strategies aimed at green transitions, while engaging with local communities and policymakers to ensure societal acceptance and understanding.

Project Pathway to Impact
Interdisciplinary Collaboration: Bringing together experts in computational mechanics, AI, materials science, and additive manufacturing ensures a holistic approach, spanning fundamental research to industrial application.
Scalable Demonstrations: Pilot studies and prototypes will validate the performance of novel composite structures in realistic scenarios, paving the way for market readiness.
Knowledge Transfer and Training: Workshops, open-source tools, and educational materials will disseminate best practices and insights, fostering the next generation of researchers and engineers in sustainable design.
Socioeconomic Integration: While the core focus is technological, the project will also involve engagement with social scientists, economists, and policymakers to address barriers to adoption—such as regulatory frameworks, public perception, and cost-benefit analyses.

Role of Social Sciences and Humanities (Where Applicable)
Stakeholder Acceptance and Policy Impact: Collaborations with social scientists will help identify strategies for market and societal acceptance of new technologies, ensuring that the innovations align with community needs and ethical considerations.
Regulatory and Ethical Frameworks: Input from legal and policy experts will be crucial in shaping guidelines that encourage the adoption of sustainable manufacturing while balancing economic and environmental goals.
Public Awareness and Participation: Humanities expertise can guide communication strategies that raise awareness of climate challenges and highlight the benefits of transitioning to greener technologies, thus fostering public support.

In summary, MultiOpStruct will leverage advanced computational design methods, AI-driven optimization, and innovative materials engineering to address the pressing challenges faced by Europe’s construction and transportation sectors. By delivering more resilient, lighter, and environmentally sustainable composite structures, the project directly supports the EU’s policy goals for emission reduction, green transition, and economic resilience—setting a precedent for global application and impactful change.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

The project developed a comprehensive computational framework for the design and optimisation of advanced composite structures produced through additive manufacturing. The research focused on enabling lightweight, high-performance, and resource-efficient structural systems through the integration of multiscale modelling, reduced-order simulation techniques, and manufacturability-aware optimisation.

A multiscale modelling environment was established to link material-level behaviour, architected lattice unit cells, and full structural components within a unified simulation platform. This framework enables accurate prediction of mechanical performance under both linear and nonlinear loading conditions. Experimental validation was carried out on additively manufactured continuous-fibre lattice structures, confirming the predictive capability of the developed models.

To significantly reduce computational cost and enable faster design cycles, advanced reduced-order modelling techniques were introduced. Novel interpolation strategies on geometric manifolds were developed to efficiently represent parameter-dependent composite systems. These methods allow accurate simulation across a wide range of design variables while dramatically decreasing computational time.

Building on this foundation, surrogate modelling strategies were implemented to enable real-time forward simulations. Hybrid multi-fidelity approaches were developed to handle high-dimensional design spaces, ensuring robust predictions even when limited training data are available. These techniques are compatible with digital-twin applications and rapid optimisation workflows.

Finally, the project delivered a manufacturability-aware topology optimisation framework for continuous-fibre composite lattices. The optimisation algorithms incorporate fibre orientation, structural compatibility, and printability constraints directly into the design process. The resulting structures were validated experimentally, demonstrating programmable stiffness behaviour and efficient material usage.

Overall, the project successfully integrated modelling, computational acceleration, optimisation, and experimental validation into a coherent design-to-manufacture pipeline for advanced composite structures.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The project advances the state of the art by integrating multiscale modelling, reduced-order simulation, surrogate acceleration, and topology optimisation within a single computational framework for additively manufactured composites.

A key innovation is the development of parametric reduced-order modelling techniques capable of interpolating between solution subspaces of varying dimensions. This enables efficient simulation of complex laminated and architected composites across wide design ranges. The surrogate modelling strategies developed in the project further extend these capabilities to high-dimensional design problems, reducing computational effort while maintaining predictive accuracy.

In the field of structural optimisation, the project introduces a manufacturability-aware topology optimisation framework that embeds fibre continuity and geometric compatibility constraints directly within the optimisation loop. This ensures that optimised designs are not only high-performing but also practically printable and scalable.

The potential impact of these results lies in accelerating the design of lightweight and resource-efficient structural components for transport, energy, and advanced manufacturing sectors. To ensure further uptake and success, continued collaboration with industry, validation at larger scales, and integration with digital manufacturing platforms will be important. Future work may include demonstration projects, commercialisation pathways, and alignment with emerging standards for additive manufacturing of fibre-reinforced composites.

A graphical summary of the primary contributions of the project.