This free webinar is part of Mecsol 2022's Webinar Series. Visit  our website to see the list of all webinars.

Prof. Jovana Jovanova, TU Delft

Structures that respond in desired ways once subject to external stimuli are called programmable structures. Programmability can be achieved with patterning unit cells resulting in uniquely designed metastructures, with integrations of smart materials or both. In my group we work on design of passive and active metastructures with tailorable mechanical properties, smart granular materials for soft robotics applications and bio-inspired lattice structures for drag reduction. We use multi-physics modelling approaches to capture the interfaces between the environmental stimuli and the structure response. We develop analytical and numerical models to introduce nonlinear behaviour (geometrical and material nonlinearities) to be able to quickly generate structure responses. Then we apply design optimization to maximize the structure functionality. We look into scalability of programmable structures and the effects of it in a large-scale domain, from manufacturing over design implications to real-scale implementation. In this talk I would show some examples of large scale metamaterial interface design for vibration attenuation in the offshore renewable energy sector; design for additive manufacturing of Nitinol lattice structures with tailored mechanical properties for energy absorption; design of piezoelectric metamaterials with exotic properties using machine learning; and smart grasper design with granular materials.

Chaired by Prof. Josué Labaki, University of Campinas