Periodic Reporting for period 2 - MAGIC (Architectured Soft Magnetoactive Materials: Beyond Instabilities)
Reporting period: 2022-09-01 to 2024-02-29
Soft magnetoactive materials can change their properties, shapes, and functions when activated by a magnetic field. These reconfigurable soft materials hold great potential for a large variety of applications, from sensing devices to energy harvesting, noise and vibration mitigation, and soft robotics. However, the multiphysics behavior of the new materials is extremely complex, and the project is specifically addressing this with a specific focus on the instability or failure prediction of the soft materials. Material failure is historically considered to be a negative phenomenon, which needs to be avoided in classical material engineering. In the project, we attempt to turn failure into functionalities by accessing the unusual behavior frequently exhibited by the material in the extreme regime. Highly ordered microstructures are the origin of multiscale magneto-mechanical instabilities, opening rich opportunities to create switchable MAEs with instability-induced complex microstructures and functions. Here, we put forward the concept of a novel design of MAEs capable of operating at low magnetic fields. The new soft magnetoactive composites will combine the peculiarity of MAE magneto-mechanics with neatly designed architected microstructures. Moreover, exploring the architected MAE in unstable domains may lead us to potential discoveries of new multiphysics phenomena.
The fundamental knowledge gained within the project may be used in the design and realization of new controllable soft reconfigurable matter. We envision that the new self-sensing, self-healing, ultra-fast transformable materials will lead to disruptive technologies such as soft machines capable of sensing, healing, morphing, and adapting to the environment and interacting with humans in unprecedented ways. Moreover, the availability of these materials may enable the development of fully functional prosthetic limbs – with sensing and haptic feedback abilities, – thus, taking the field of rehabilitation and health care to new levels and providing the technological platform for new affordable prosthetic devices. Furthermore, these devices, together with architected materials, can be potentially fabricated through 3D printing, opening the avenue for rapidly designing personal-specific adaptive orthopedic prosthetics devices. The new soft reconfigurable materials may impact the fast-growing field of Soft Robotics, replacing the classical "rigid robotics'' with its soft, haptic, and adaptive interface.
The fundamental knowledge gained within the project may be used in the design and realization of new controllable soft reconfigurable matter. We envision that the new self-sensing, self-healing, ultra-fast transformable materials will lead to disruptive technologies such as soft machines capable of sensing, healing, morphing, and adapting to the environment and interacting with humans in unprecedented ways. Moreover, the availability of these materials may enable the development of fully functional prosthetic limbs – with sensing and haptic feedback abilities, – thus, taking the field of rehabilitation and health care to new levels and providing the technological platform for new affordable prosthetic devices. Furthermore, these devices, together with architected materials, can be potentially fabricated through 3D printing, opening the avenue for rapidly designing personal-specific adaptive orthopedic prosthetics devices. The new soft reconfigurable materials may impact the fast-growing field of Soft Robotics, replacing the classical "rigid robotics'' with its soft, haptic, and adaptive interface.
Within the project, our research team has developed our activities in the following three directions. First is the theoretical analysis, where we attempt to derive exact solutions and estimates for the behavior of soft microstructured materials to better understand the microstructure-property relations of the new materials. The second one is the development of computer modeling by using advanced numerical techniques, allowing for more accurate simulations of the material behavior and providing a more detailed picture (while guided by the derived analytical solutions and theory). The third is one of the most challenging tasks in physically realizing the (analytically and computer models) predicted material behavior in experimentations.
Within these directions, we have derived some useful solutions for certain classes of soft composites and have been developing effective codes for computer modeling applicable to highly structured soft magnetoactive materials. Computer modeling allows us to predict the development of those failure mechanisms/instabilities and, hence, get important information about the forthcoming microstructural changes, potentially leading to the ability to control the properties. In parallel, the experimental activities include the careful characterization of the suitable material manufacturing and 3D printing base materials; these experimentally obtained material properties are used in the analysis and computer modeling to obtain realistic predictions to guide the experiments further. In addition, we have been able to realize in experiments the initially designed microstructure transformations for soft composites (such as particulate and laminate composites, currently loaded mechanically only, without any magnetic field). More importantly, we have performed the initial experiments on certain magneto-active systems and illustrated the existence of the microstructure transformations and their characteristic tunability by a magnetic field.
Within these directions, we have derived some useful solutions for certain classes of soft composites and have been developing effective codes for computer modeling applicable to highly structured soft magnetoactive materials. Computer modeling allows us to predict the development of those failure mechanisms/instabilities and, hence, get important information about the forthcoming microstructural changes, potentially leading to the ability to control the properties. In parallel, the experimental activities include the careful characterization of the suitable material manufacturing and 3D printing base materials; these experimentally obtained material properties are used in the analysis and computer modeling to obtain realistic predictions to guide the experiments further. In addition, we have been able to realize in experiments the initially designed microstructure transformations for soft composites (such as particulate and laminate composites, currently loaded mechanically only, without any magnetic field). More importantly, we have performed the initial experiments on certain magneto-active systems and illustrated the existence of the microstructure transformations and their characteristic tunability by a magnetic field.
The project research provided new insights into the soft material failure/instability phenomenon through exploring the material behavior in the posy-failure (post-instability regime). The theoretical and computer modeling efforts produced information about the main characteristics describing the evolution of the microstructures after the failure (microstructural buckling occurs). Since the microstructure geometry defines the properties of the material, these new results help predict and design the switchable properties of soft magnetoactive composites. We started by considering the purely mechanical (without magnetic field) soft composites and calculated the main characteristics of the material failure for a variety of materials. We have also included the physically relevant material properties of the soft composites in the computer modeling and performed the experiments on the 3D printed periodic soft composites (currently, mechanically loading without the application of magnetic field). We observe similar ways of the changes in the microstructures in the experiments, as we predicted in the analysis and computer modeling. While the initially considered microstructures are relatively less complex, we plan to build on the obtained results and use the developed models in consideration of more complex and potentially richer microstructures. This may also require consideration of the limits and modifications of the material fabrication techniques / 3d printing and its resolution. Moreover, we have also experimentally realized the initial predictions (from both theoretical and computer modeling analyses) of material transformations at the microstructure level in soft materials with magnetoactive phases modified by the application of an external magnetic field. These new results help us understand the failure/instability phenomenon in soft magnetoactive materials. Based on the encouraging (experimental, analytical, and computer modeling) results, we plan to develop the material fabrication and experimentation that will allow us to realize the computationally designed materials and geometries with unusual behaviors due to the “failure-like-surviving” event of the materials.