AGE2M | Accelerating geometrically exact metamaterial modelling

Summary
The magnetically induced movement of a soft elastic material which contains magnetic particles includes rotations of said particles. In other words, the particles apply torque on their surroundings. Since the material is soft, large deformations take place, in part due to these rotations of the magnetic particles. The current coupled magneto-mechanical theory does not account for this phenomenon and is thus poorly suited for its description. At the same time, magnetically induced rotations are desired in robotics in order to allow for complex movement, which motivates the need for a better model. Another major problem are the long computational times, or in general, the large computational cost of simulating the complex materials which are used in soft robotics. These materials, otherwise called metamaterials, are endowed with an artificially designed micro-geometry, which allows the designer to control certain material properties. As a result, simulation tools must be able to correctly capture that geometry, which often entails openings or re-entrant corners. The reining approach of using standard finite element technology for that purpose yields a very high computational cost, since a vast amount of elements is required in the computation. This motivates the necessity of a new finite element framework with a significantly reduced computational cost.
The solutions of this proposal consist in introducing novel theoretical and numerical frameworks for the design and computation of metamaterials with applications to soft robotics. The new theoretical framework will couple the theory of electromagentism by Maxwell with the micropolar continuum theory of Cosserat, thus allowing for micro-rotations and non-symmetrical stress tensors. The novel numerical framework will introduce new NUBRS-enhanced finite elements for Hilbert space complexes, allowing for computationally efficient and robust simulations.
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More information & hyperlinks
Web resources: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101152236
Start date: 01-01-2025
End date: 31-12-2026
Total budget - Public funding: - 191 760,00 Euro
Cordis data

Original description

The magnetically induced movement of a soft elastic material which contains magnetic particles includes rotations of said particles. In other words, the particles apply torque on their surroundings. Since the material is soft, large deformations take place, in part due to these rotations of the magnetic particles. The current coupled magneto-mechanical theory does not account for this phenomenon and is thus poorly suited for its description. At the same time, magnetically induced rotations are desired in robotics in order to allow for complex movement, which motivates the need for a better model. Another major problem are the long computational times, or in general, the large computational cost of simulating the complex materials which are used in soft robotics. These materials, otherwise called metamaterials, are endowed with an artificially designed micro-geometry, which allows the designer to control certain material properties. As a result, simulation tools must be able to correctly capture that geometry, which often entails openings or re-entrant corners. The reining approach of using standard finite element technology for that purpose yields a very high computational cost, since a vast amount of elements is required in the computation. This motivates the necessity of a new finite element framework with a significantly reduced computational cost.
The solutions of this proposal consist in introducing novel theoretical and numerical frameworks for the design and computation of metamaterials with applications to soft robotics. The new theoretical framework will couple the theory of electromagentism by Maxwell with the micropolar continuum theory of Cosserat, thus allowing for micro-rotations and non-symmetrical stress tensors. The novel numerical framework will introduce new NUBRS-enhanced finite elements for Hilbert space complexes, allowing for computationally efficient and robust simulations.

Status

SIGNED

Call topic

HORIZON-MSCA-2023-PF-01-01

Update Date

06-11-2024
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Horizon Europe
HORIZON.1 Excellent Science
HORIZON.1.2 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
HORIZON.1.2.0 Cross-cutting call topics
HORIZON-MSCA-2023-PF-01
HORIZON-MSCA-2023-PF-01-01 MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2023