Related papers: Architecting materials for extremal stiffness, yie…
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…
Metal additive manufacturing (AM) processes often fabricate a near-net shape that includes the as-designed part as well as the sacrificial support structures that need to be machined away by subtractive manufacturing (SM), for instance…
Functionally Graded Materials (FGMs) made of soft constituents have emerged as promising material-structure systems in potential applications across many engineering disciplines, such as soft robots, actuators, energy harvesting, and tissue…
We present a 250 line Matlab code for topology optimization for linearized buckling criteria. The code is conceived to handle stiffness, volume and Buckling Load Factors (BLFs) either as the objective function or as constraints. We use the…
The mechanical properties of metallic nanostructures are governed not only by topology but also by crystal symmetry and face-specific surface physics, which are typically absent from continuum topology optimization. We develop an…
This paper presents two main results. The first result indicates that in materials with broadly distributed microscopic heterogeneities, the fracture strength distribution corresponding to the peak load of the material response does not…
With the goal of identifying optimal elastic single-scale microstructures for multiple loading situations, the paper shows that qualified starting guesses, based on knowledge of optimal rank-3 laminates, significantly improves chances of…
In this paper we apply topology optimization to micro-structured superhydrophobic surfaces for the first time. It has been experimentally observed that a droplet suspended on a brush of micrometric posts shows a high static contact angle…
Topologically interlocked structures are assemblies of interlocking blocks that hold together solely through contact. Such structures have been shown to exhibit high strength, energy dissipation, and crack arrest properties. Recent studies…
The collective strength of a system of fibers, each having a failure threshold drawn randomly from a distribution, indicates the maximum load carrying capacity of different disordered systems ranging from disordered solids, power-grid…
Asymptotic post-buckling theory is applied to sizing and topology optimization of trusses and frames, exploring its potential and current computational difficulties. We show that a designs' post-buckling response can be controlled by…
This paper presents an adaptive discretization strategy for level set topology optimization of structures based on hierarchical B-splines. This work focuses on the influence of the discretization approach and the adaptation strategy on the…
Bifurcation of an elastic structure crucially depends on the curvature of the constraints against which the ends of the structure are prescribed to move, an effect which deserves more attention than it has received so far. In fact, we show…
The question of how a disordered material's microstructure translates into macroscopic mechanical response is central to understanding and designing materials like pastes, foams and metallic glasses. Here, we examine a 2D soft jammed…
Pattern-forming metamaterials feature microstructures specifically designed to change the material's macroscopic properties due to internal instabilities. These can be triggered either by mechanical deformation or, in the case of active…
Martensitic materials show a complex, hierarchical microstructure containing structural domains separated by various types of twin boundaries. Several concepts exist to describe this microstructure on each length scale, however, there is no…
We introduce a lightweight structure optimization approach for problems in which there is uncertainty in the force locations. Such uncertainty may arise due to force contact locations that change during use or are simply unknown a priori.…
Long range order and symmetry in heterogeneous materials architected on crystal lattices lead to elastic and inelastic anisotropies and thus limit mechanical functionalities in particular crystallographic directions. Here, we present a…
Metal additive manufacturing (AM) opens the possibility for spatial control of as-fabricated microstructure and properties. However, since the solid state diffusional transformations that drive microstructure outcomes are governed by…
In the current industry, the development of optimized mechanical components able to satisfy the customer requirements evolves quickly. Therefore, companies are asked for efficient solutions to improve their products in terms of stiffness…