3,585 research outputs found
Explicit Topology Optimization of Conforming Voronoi Foams
Topology optimization is able to maximally leverage the high DOFs and
mechanical potentiality of porous foams but faces three fundamental challenges:
conforming to free-form outer shapes, maintaining geometric connectivity
between adjacent cells, and achieving high simulation accuracy. To resolve the
issues, borrowing the concept from Voronoi tessellation, we propose to use the
site (or seed) positions and radii of the beams as the DOFs for open-cell foam
design. Such DOFs cover extensive design space and have clear geometrical
meaning, which makes it easy to provide explicit controls (e.g. granularity).
During the gradient-based optimization, the foam topology can change freely,
and some seeds may even be pushed out of the shape, which greatly alleviates
the challenges of prescribing a fixed underlying grid. The mechanical property
of our foam is computed from its highly heterogeneous density field counterpart
discretized on a background mesh, with a much improved accuracy via a new
material-aware numerical coarsening method. We also explore the
differentiability of the open-cell Voronoi foams w.r.t. its seed locations, and
propose a local finite difference method to estimate the derivatives
efficiently. We do not only show the improved foam performance of our Voronoi
foam in comparison with classical topology optimization approaches, but also
demonstrate its advantages in various settings, especially when the target
volume fraction is extremely low
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Design Synthesis of Adaptive Mesoscopic Cellular Structures with Unit Truss Approach and Particle Swarm Optimization Algorithm
Cellular material structures have been engineered at the mesoscopic scale for high performance
and multifunctional capabilities. However, the design of adaptive cellular structures - structures with
cellular configurations, sizes, and shapes designed for a specific geometric and loading context - has
not been sufficiently investigated. In this paper, the authors present a design synthesis method with the
use of unit truss approach and particle swarm optimization algorithm to design adaptive cellular
structures. A critical review is presented to show the pros and cons of the new design synthesis method
and an existing homogenization method. The research extends the application of additive
manufacturing in the design of new materials for high performances and benefits its long-term growth.Mechanical Engineerin
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ME Design and Freeform Fabrication of Compliant Cellular Materials with Graded Stiffness
Typically, cellular materials are designed for structural applications to provide stiffness or
absorb impact via permanent plastic deformation. Alternatively, it is possible to design compliant
cellular materials that absorb energy via recoverable elastic deformation, allowing the material to
spring back to its original configuration after the load is released. Potential applications include
automotive panels or prosthetic applications that require repeated, low-speed impact absorption
without permanent deformation. The key is to arrange solid base material in cellular topologies
that permit high levels of elastic deformation. To prevent plastic deformation, the topologies are
designed for contact between cell walls at predetermined load levels, resulting in customized,
graded stiffness profiles. Design techniques are established for synthesizing cellular topologies
with customized compliance for static or quasi-static applications. The design techniques
account for cell wall contact, large scale deformations, and material nonlinearities. Resulting
cellular material designs are fabricated with selective laser sintering, and their properties are
experimentally evaluated.Mechanical Engineerin
A jigsaw puzzle framework for homogenization of high porosity foams
An approach to homogenization of high porosity metallic foams is explored.
The emphasis is on the \Alporas{} foam and its representation by means of
two-dimensional wire-frame models. The guaranteed upper and lower bounds on the
effective properties are derived by the first-order homogenization with the
uniform and minimal kinematic boundary conditions at heart. This is combined
with the method of Wang tilings to generate sufficiently large material samples
along with their finite element discretization. The obtained results are
compared to experimental and numerical data available in literature and the
suitability of the two-dimensional setting itself is discussed.Comment: 11 pages, 7 figures, 3 table
VoroCrust: Voronoi Meshing Without Clipping
Polyhedral meshes are increasingly becoming an attractive option with
particular advantages over traditional meshes for certain applications. What
has been missing is a robust polyhedral meshing algorithm that can handle broad
classes of domains exhibiting arbitrarily curved boundaries and sharp features.
In addition, the power of primal-dual mesh pairs, exemplified by
Voronoi-Delaunay meshes, has been recognized as an important ingredient in
numerous formulations. The VoroCrust algorithm is the first provably-correct
algorithm for conforming polyhedral Voronoi meshing for non-convex and
non-manifold domains with guarantees on the quality of both surface and volume
elements. A robust refinement process estimates a suitable sizing field that
enables the careful placement of Voronoi seeds across the surface circumventing
the need for clipping and avoiding its many drawbacks. The algorithm has the
flexibility of filling the interior by either structured or random samples,
while preserving all sharp features in the output mesh. We demonstrate the
capabilities of the algorithm on a variety of models and compare against
state-of-the-art polyhedral meshing methods based on clipped Voronoi cells
establishing the clear advantage of VoroCrust output.Comment: 18 pages (including appendix), 18 figures. Version without compressed
images available on https://www.dropbox.com/s/qc6sot1gaujundy/VoroCrust.pdf.
Supplemental materials available on
https://www.dropbox.com/s/6p72h1e2ivw6kj3/VoroCrust_supplemental_materials.pd
Conformal Magnetic Composite RFID for Wearable RF and Bio-Monitoring Applications
©2008 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. However, permission to reprint/republish this material for advertising or promotional purposes or for creating new collective works for resale or distribution to servers or lists, or to reuse any copyrighted component of this work in other works must be obtained from the IEEE. This material is presented to ensure timely dissemination of scholarly and technical work. Copyright and all rights therein are retained by authors or by other copyright holders. All persons copying this information are expected to adhere to the terms and constraints invoked by each author's copyright. In most cases, these works may not be reposted without the explicit permission of the copyright holder.10.1109/TMTT.2008.2006810This paper introduces for the first time a novel flexible magnetic composite material for RF identification (RFID) and wearable RF antennas. First, one conformal RFID tag working at 480 MHz is designed and fabricated as a benchmarking prototype and the miniaturization concept is verified. Then, the impact of the material is thoroughly investigated using a hybrid method involving electromagnetic and statistical tools. Two separate statistical experiments are performed, one for the analysis of the impact of the relative permittivity and permeability of the proposed material and the other for the evaluation of the impact of the dielectric and magnetic loss on the antenna performance. Finally, the effect of the bending of the antenna is investigated, both on the S-parameters and on the radiation pattern. The successful implementation of the flexible magnetic composite material enables the significant miniaturization of RF passives and antennas in UHF frequency bands, especially when conformal modules that can be easily fine-tuned are required in critical biomedical and pharmaceutical applications
Design of the flutter suppression system for DAST ARW-IR
The design of the flutter suppression system for a remotely-piloted research vehicle is described. The modeling of the aeroelastic system, the methodology used to synthesized the control law, the analytical results used to evaluate the control law performance, and ground testing of the flutter suppression system onboard the aircraft are discussed. The major emphasis is on the use of optimal control techniques employed during the synthesis of the control law
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