The emergence of meta-materials has opened a new paradigm in designing engineering parts in which the full structural parts can be optimized together with the meta-material they are locally composed of. Moreover, additional morphing at local and global scales may support their adaptation to variable loading conditions and shifted user needs. As polymeric materials can fulfill simultaneously structural mechanical and functional requirements, the combination of this design paradigm with additive manufacturing can support and generate novel applications.
However, many left challenges can only be addressed by considering experimental and numerical multi-scale methods. Nevertheless, current existing approaches are limited in several aspects because on the one hand of the difficulty in representing the microstructure and characterizing micro-scale constituent materials, and on the other hand in the computational cost inherent to these approaches.
The overall objective of this project is to develop a data-driven methodology relying on a structural properties-micro-structure linkage and able to design optimized devices based on meta-materials and printable using additive manufacturing.
3D-printing of polymers has recently found a lot of interest and growth, a significant portion of which concerns real applications in products. Results of this project will support significantly drivers of this growth such as low investment cost, geometrical freedom, integration and individualization, on a new level: this project is an opportunity to explore new concepts of architecture from an innovative design methodology that would enable it to offer unique products, both in terms of efficiency and comfort in different areas. The proposed microstructures can achieve light-weight designs and customized properties; and the simulation approach will guarantee the required robustness of process and a repeatable high product quality.
As a proof of concept, the methodology will be applied to design metamaterial-based structures:
i) Athletic shoe soles, relying on reversible deformation of the metamaterials that absorb energy during deformation and return it without change in shape, in which emphasis is put on fatigue performance;
ii) Bicycle helmets, relying on energy dissipation, possibly by irreversible deformations, in which emphasis is put on minimizing weight and cost whilst maximizing energy dissipation.
