Design of Metamaterials for Additive Manufacturing

Danial Molavitabrizi and Mahmoud Mousavi

Uppsala University, Sweden

Artificially designed materials with unique properties are often referred as metamaterials. Lattice materials, as a class of metamaterials, have a great potential for industrial applications due to their multifunctionality, i.e. a combination of high strength/stiffness to weight ratio, energy absorption and acoustic damping. However, because of their microlevel architecture, it is almost impossible to simulate such materials in the scale of any real-world engineering products. The way to tackle this problem is to take a representative volume element (RVE) and use  homogenization techniques to derive the effective properties. The homogenized material can in turn be used for the final macroscale simulation. The microscale analysis of the RVE can be done using both discrete (1D) and continuum (3D) models. The selection of the suitable model depends on design considerations like fatigue, stress concentration and plastic deformation. Such design requirements along with material models and simulation results will be discussed in this presentation.