Related papers: Structurally optimized shells
In this paper we report a new promising idea on the design and manufacturing of ply composite structures, tailored to exhibit maximum stiffness under given weight constraints and loading conditions. It is based on the idea behind an…
A preliminary iterative 3D meso-scale structural model of the femur was developed, in which bar and shell elements were used to represent trabecular and cortical bone respectively. The cross-sectional areas of the bar elements and the…
Extrusion 3D-printing of biopolymers and natural fiber-based biocomposites allows for the fabrication of complex structures, ranging from gels for healthcare applications to eco-friendly structural materials. However, traditional polymer…
Soft materials capable of large inelastic deformation play an essential role in high-performance nacre-inspired architectured materials with a combination of stiffness, strength and toughness. The rigid "building blocks" made from glass or…
The design of specified nonlinear mechanical responses into a structure or material is a highly sought after capability, which would have a significant impact in areas such as wave tailoring in metamaterials, impact mitigation, soft…
This article reviews recent inverse statistical-mechanical methodologies that we have devised to optimize interaction potentials in soft matter systems that correspond to stable "target" structures. We are interested in finding the…
Aggregating base elements into rigid objects such as furniture or sculptures is a great way for designers to convey a specific look and feel. Unfortunately, there is no existing solution to help model structurally sound aggregates. The…
A tunable stiffness bone rod was designed, optimized, and 3D printed to address the common shortcomings of existing bone rods in the healing of long fractured bones. The common deficiencies of existing bone fixations are high stiffness,…
Mechanical metamaterials are structures designed to exhibit an exotic response, such as topological soft modes at a surface. Here we explore single-material 3D prints of these topological structures by translating a ball-and-spring model…
Inspired by the necessity of morphological adaptation in animals, a growing body of work has attempted to expand robot training to encompass physical aspects of a robot's design. However, reinforcement learning methods capable of optimizing…
A new approach for generating stress-constrained topological designs in continua is presented. The main novelty is in the use of elasto-plastic modeling and in optimizing the design such that it will exhibit a linear-elastic response. This…
This work puts forward a form finding problem of designing a least-volume vault that is a surface structure spanning over a plane region, which via pure compression transfers a vertically tracking load to the supporting boundary. Through a…
A new relaxation approach is proposed which allows for the description of stress- and strain-softening at finite strains. The model is based on the construction of a convex hull replacing the originally non-convex incremental stress…
This paper presents a method for simultaneous optimization of the outer shape and internal topology of aircraft wings, with the objective of minimizing drag subject to lift and compliance constraints for multiple load cases. The physics are…
In the pursuit of designing safer and more efficient energy-absorbing structures, engineers must tackle the challenge of improving crush performance while balancing multiple conflicting objectives, such as maximising energy absorption and…
Fluid-structure interactions are a widespread phenomenon in nature. Although their numerical modeling have come a long way, the application of numerical design tools to these multiphysics problems is still lagging behind. Gradient-based…
Shell buckling is central in many biological structures and advanced functional materials, even if, traditionally, this elastic instability has been regarded as a catastrophic phenomenon to be avoided for engineering structures. Either way,…
Freeform thin-shell surfaces are critical in various fields, but their fabrication is complex and costly. Traditional methods are wasteful and require custom molds, while 3D printing needs extensive support structures and post-processing.…
Based on previous work for the static problem, in this paper we first derive one form of dynamic finite-strain shell equations for incompressible hyperelastic materials that involve three shell constitutive relations. In order to single out…
Shell structures are generally modeled based on kinematic hypotheses, where some of the parameters are preferentially evaluated in a phenomenological manner. In this article, asymptotic analysis against the underlying three-dimensional…