Level-set method for design of multi-phase elastic and thermoelastic materials

The problem of designing composite materials with desired mechanical properties is to specify the materials microstructures in terms of the topology and distribution of their constituent material phases within a unit cell of periodic microstructures. In this paper we present an approach based on a multi-phase level-set model for the geometric and material representation and for numerical solution of a least squares optimization problem. The level-set model precisely specifies the material regions and their sharp boundaries in contrast to a raster discretization of the conventional homogenization-based approaches. Combined with the classical shape derivatives, the level-set method yields a computational system of partial differential equations. In using the Eulerian computation scheme with a fixed rectilinear grid and a fixed mesh in the unit cell, the gradient descent solution of the optimization captures the interfacial boundaries naturally and performs topological changes accurately. The proposed method is illustrated with several 2D examples for the synthesis of heterogeneous microstructures of elastic and/or thermoelastic composites composed of two and three material phases.     

考虑泊松效应的材料/结构一体化设计方法

为实现含有不同泊松比组分复合材料的优化设计,并考虑宏观结构及复杂的边界条件,提出了考虑泊松效应的材料/结构一体化设计方法,其显著特征在于不同组分材料中引入了泊松比插值,假设宏观结构由周期性排列的复合材料组成,复合材料含两种各向同性且泊松比不同的组分材料,以静态问题中柔顺度最小化或动态问题中特征值最大化为目标以及宏微观体积比为约束建立了拓扑优化模型。采用均匀化理论预测了复合材料等效性能,推导了目标函数对宏微观密度变量的敏度表达式。分别采用密度过滤和敏度过滤来消除宏微观拓扑优化中的不稳定性现象。采用优化准则法分别更新宏观、微观密度变量,考察了微观体积比和组分材料泊松比参数对优化结果的影响。三维数值算例结果表明所提出的一体化方法具有可行性和优越性。     

Concurrent topological design of composite structures and materials containing multiple phases of distinct Poisson’s ratios

Most studies on composites assume that the constituent phases have different values of stiffness. Little attention has been paid to the effect of constituent phases having distinct Poisson’s ratios. This research focuses on a concurrent optimization method for simultaneously designing composite structures and materials with distinct Poisson’s ratios. The proposed method aims to minimize the mean compliance of the macrostructure with a given mass of base materials. In contrast to the traditional interpolation of the stiffness matrix through numerical results, an interpolation scheme of the Young’s modulus and Poisson’s ratio using different parameters is adopted. The numerical results demonstrate that the Poisson effect plays a key role in reducing the mean compliance of the final design. An important contribution of the present study is that the proposed concurrent optimization method can automatically distribute base materials with distinct Poisson’s ratios between the macrostructural and microstructural levels under a single constraint of the total mass.     

零膨胀材料设计与模拟验证

零膨胀材料对提高航空航天结构和电子设备等的热几何稳定性有重要意义。采用拓扑优化技术设计各相材料在单胞域的分布形式, 以获得零膨胀材料的微结构形式。给出了由二相实体材料和空心构成的各向同性零膨胀材料的设计方案, 讨论了初始设计依赖性问题, 分析了该依赖性的存在原因。采用有限元技术代替实际测试, 分析了所设计材料的试件在均匀温度变化下的变形, 验证了所设计材料的零膨胀(低膨胀) 性质, 说明通过拓扑优化技术设计材料的微结构是设计零膨胀材料的有效方法。     

Optimal design of piezoelectric microstructures

Application of piezoelectric materials requires an improvement in their performance characteristics which can be obtained by designing new topologies of microstructures (or unit cells) for these materials. The topology of the unit cell (and the properties of its constituents) determines the effective properties of the piezocomposite. By changing the unit cell topology, better performance characteristics can be obtained in the piezocomposite. Based on this idea, we have proposed in this work an optimal design method of piezocomposite microstructures using topology optimization techniques and homogenization theory. The topology optimization method consists of finding the distribution of material phase and void phase in a periodic unit cell, that optimizes the performance characteristics, subject to constraints such as property symmetry and stiffness. The optimization procedure is implemented using sequential linear programming. In order to calculate the effective properties of a unit cell with complex topology, a general homogenization method applied to piezoelectricity was implemented using the finite element method. This method has no limitations regarding volume fraction or shape of the composite constituents. Although only two-dimensional plane strain topologies of microstructures have been considered to show the implementation of the method, this can be extended to three-dimensional topologies. Microstructures obtained show a large improvement in performance characteristics compared to pure piezoelectric material or simple designs of piezocomposite unit cells.     

Topological optimization for the design of microstructures of isotropic cellular materials

The aim of this study was to design isotropic periodic microstructures of cellular materials using the bidirectional evolutionary structural optimization (BESO) technique. The goal was to determine the optimal distribution of material phase within the periodic base cell. Maximizing bulk modulus or shear modulus was selected as the objective of the material design subject to an isotropy constraint and a volume constraint. The effective properties of the material were found using the homogenization method based on finite element analyses of the base cell. The proposed BESO procedure utilizes the gradient-based sensitivity method to impose the isotropy constraint and gradually evolve the microstructures of cellular materials to an optimum. Numerical examples show the computational efficiency of the approach. A series of new and interesting microstructures of isotropic cellular materials that maximize the bulk or shear modulus have been found and presented. The methodology can be extended to incorporate other material properties of interest such as designing isotropic cellular materials with negative Poisson's ratio.     

宏观结构性能约束下的材料微结构拓扑优化

为了设计周期性多孔钢或钢/铝复合材料优化微结构,基于独立连续映射法,建立了以结构总质量最小化为目标,节点位移为约束的拓扑优化模型。假设宏观结构由多孔材料或复合材料组成,其等效特性采用均匀化理论计算得到。定义了微观材料拓扑变量,节点位移约束采用一阶泰勒展开近似。各种材料设计要求作为约束条件纳入到优化模型中。推导了节点位移和总质量的敏度表达式。采用基于求解偏微分的过滤方法消除了数值不稳定性。在二维数值算例中获得了各种满足设计要求的优化材料微结构。结果表明:提出的方法在材料微结构拓扑优化设计中具有可行性和有效性。      

A note on fracture toughness of multiphase materials

Fracture toughness of composite or multiphase materials in which constituent phases are randomly distributed, is considered. An expression is derived for estimating the average value of effective fracture toughness of a two phase material in terms of the values of the fracture toughness of the constituent phases and their volume fractions. The result is generalized for a material consisting of an arbitrary number of phases. The limiting case of one of the phases being void is also considered. The expressions derived are examined in the light of some available test data.     

Tensile strength of fibrous composites at elevated temperature

Abstract

This paper describes an analysing methodology to simulate the tensile strength of a unidirectional fibrous composite under thermomechanical loads using properties of constituent fibre and matrix materials and fibre volume fraction only. The stress states in the constituent phases at every mechanical load level are explicitly determined by making use of a bridging matrix, whereas the thermal stresses in the constituents are obtained based on Schepery's formulae. A composite failure is assumed when any constituent material attains its ultimate stress state. The maximum normal stress theory of isotropic materials is used to detect the constituent failure. A unidirectional alumina fibre reinforced aluminium matrix composite at a number of temperatures from room temperature to 773 K subjected to off axial loads has been analysed. The predicted off axial strengths are comparable with the experiments of Mutsuda and Matsuura.     

An improved model for simulating impedance spectroscopy

A numerical method for simulating the frequency-dependent impedance response of multi-phase composite materials has been developed. The algorithm takes as input 1) a digital image of a microstructure, in two or three dimensions, of any specified composite material, and 2) the frequency-dependent electrical properties of the individual phases of the composite. An impedance spectrum of any frequency range can then be computed using a conjugate gradient algorithm operating on a finite difference solution scheme of Laplace's equation. Examples are given of the impedance of analytically solvable microstructures, to validate the algorithm, and of a random system, to test the usefulness of two different effective medium theories.     

Concurrent design of composite materials and structures considering thermal conductivity constraints

This article introduces thermal conductivity constraints into concurrent design. The influence of thermal conductivity on macrostructure and orthotropic composite material is extensively investigated using the minimum mean compliance as the objective function. To simultaneously control the amounts of different phase materials, a given mass fraction is applied in the optimization algorithm. Two phase materials are assumed to compete with each other to be distributed during the process of maximizing stiffness and thermal conductivity when the mass fraction constraint is small, where phase 1 has superior stiffness and thermal conductivity whereas phase 2 has a superior ratio of stiffness to density. The effective properties of the material microstructure are computed by a numerical homogenization technique, in which the effective elasticity matrix is applied to macrostructural analyses and the effective thermal conductivity matrix is applied to the thermal conductivity constraint. To validate the effectiveness of the proposed optimization algorithm, several three-dimensional illustrative examples are provided and the features under different boundary conditions are analysed.     

Microstructure design of a two phase composite using two-point correlation functions

Two-point distribution functions are used here as to introduce “Microstructure Sensitive Design” in two-phase composites. Statistical distribution functions are commonly used for the representation of microstructures and also for homogenization of materials properties. The use of two-point statistics allows the composite designer to include the morphology and distribution in addition to the properties of the individual phases and components. Statistical continuum mechanics is used to make a direct link between the microstructure and properties (elastic and plastic) in terms of these two-point statistical functions. An empirical form of the two-point statistical function is used which allows the construction of a composite hull. Two different composites (isotropic and anisotropic) are considered and the effect of anisotropy for the prediction of the elastic properties is discussed     

Robust topology optimization for cellular composites with hybrid uncertainties

This paper will develop a new robust topology optimization method for the concurrent design of cellular composites with an array of identical microstructures subject to random‐interval hybrid uncertainties. A concurrent topology optimization framework is formulated to optimize both the composite macrostructure and the material microstructure. The robust objective function is defined based on the interval mean and interval variance of the corresponding objective function. A new uncertain propagation approach, termed as a hybrid univariate dimension reduction method, is proposed to estimate the interval mean and variance. The sensitivity information of the robust objective function can be obtained after the uncertainty analysis. Several numerical examples are used to validate the effectiveness of the proposed robust topology optimization method.     

Correlation of elastic properties of melt infiltrated SiC/SiC composites to in situ properties of constituent phases

The ability to correlate the elastic properties of melt infiltrated SiC/SiC composites to properties of constituent phases using a hybrid Finite Element approach is examined and the influence of material internal features, such as the fabric architecture and intra-tow voids, on such correlation is elucidated. Tensile testing was carried out in air at room temperature and 1204 °C. Through-thickness compressive elastic modulus utilizing the stacked disk method was measured at room temperature. In situ moduli of constituent materials were experimentally evaluated using nano-indentation techniques at room temperature. A consistent relationship is observed between constituent properties and composite properties for in-plane normal and shear moduli and Poisson’s ratio at room temperature. However, experimental data for through-thickness compressive elastic modulus is lower than the calculated value. It is hypothesized that the existence of voids inside the fiber tows and their collapse under compressive loads is the cause of such discrepancy. Estimates for the change in elastic moduli of constituent phases with temperature were obtained from literature and used to calculate the elastic properties of the composites at 1204 °C. A reasonable correlation between the in-plane elastic moduli of the composite and the in situ elastic properties of constituent phases is observed.     

Multiscale topology optimization for frequency domain response with bi-material interpolation schemes

In areas that require high performance components, such as the automotive, aeronautics and aerospace industries, optimization of the dynamic behavior of structures is sought through different approaches, such as the design of materials specific to the application, for instance through structural topology optimization. The bi-directional evolutionary structural optimization (BESO) method, in particular, has been used for the simultaneous design of hierarchical structures, which means that the structural domain consists not only of the macrostructure but also of the microstructural topology of the materials employed. The purpose of this work is to apply the BESO method to solve two-dimensional multiscale problems in order to minimize the response of structures subjected to forced vibrations in a given frequency range. The homogenization method is applied to integrate the different scales of the problem. In particular, the material interpolation model for two materials is used. The BESO method is applied to different cases of optimization, in macroscale, microscale, and multiscale structural domains. Numerical examples are presented to validate the optimization and demonstrate the potential of this approach. The numerical examples show that the multiscale bi-material topology optimization method implemented here is able to produce structures and microstructures for optimization of the frequency domain response, satisfying prescribed volume constraints.

     

Optimal design of laminated piezocomposite energy harvesting devices considering stress constraints

Energy harvesting devices are smart structures capable of converting the mechanical energy (generally, in the form of vibrations) that would be wasted otherwise in the environment into usable electrical energy. Laminated piezoelectric plate and shell structures have been largely used in the design of these devices because of their large generation areas. The design of energy harvesting devices is complex, and they can be efficiently designed by using topology optimization methods (TOM). In this work, the design of laminated piezocomposite energy harvesting devices has been studied using TOM. The energy harvesting performance is improved by maximizing the effective electric power generated by the piezoelectric material, measured at a coupled electric resistor, when subjected to a harmonic excitation. However, harmonic vibrations generate mechanical stress distribution that, depending on the frequency and the amplitude of vibration, may lead to piezoceramic failure. This study advocates using a global stress constraint, which accounts for different failure criteria for different types of materials (isotropic, piezoelectric, and orthotropic). Thus, the electric power is maximized by optimally distributing piezoelectric material, by choosing its polarization sign, and by properly choosing the fiber angles of composite materials to satisfy the global stress constraint. In the TOM formulation, the Piezoelectric Material with Penalization and Polarization material model is applied to distribute piezoelectric material and to choose its polarization sign, and the Discrete Material Optimization method is applied to optimize the composite fiber orientation. The finite element method is adopted to model the structure with a piezoelectric multilayered shell element. Numerical examples are presented to illustrate the proposed methodology. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Dielectric properties and spatial distribution of polarization of ceramic + polymer composite sensors

Thin films ceramic + polymer composite sensors with mixed connectivities possess high values of piezo- and pyroelectric coefficients and the formability and flexibility which are not attainable in a single-phase ferroelectric material, i. e., an electroceramic or a polymer. The efficiency and the piezo- and pyroelectric figure of merit (FOM) are influenced by the temperature dependence of the dielectric properties and the nature of the spatial distribution of polarization of the composite material. We report the results of a study of dielectric properties of calcium – modified lead titanate (PTCa) and a polar copolymer, polyvinylidene fluoride and trifluoroethylene P(VDF-TrFE) and PTCa and epoxy in a wide frequency range. Each of the two composites was fabricated with two different volume fractions of the constituent phases. Furthermore, the spatial distribution of polarization was determined by the laser intensity modulation method (LIMM) for each composite sensor in order to assess the polarization distribution of the sensors. These results are also reported in this work. Received: 6 November 2000 / Reviewed and accepted: 7 November 2000     

On design of multi-functional microstructural materials

The design of periodic microstructural composite materials to achieve specific properties has been a major area of interest in material research. Tailoring different physical properties by modifying the microstructural architecture in unit cells is one of the main concerns in exploring and developing novel multi-functional cellular composites and has led to the development of a large variety of mathematical models, theories and methodologies for improving the performance of such materials. This paper provides a critical review on the state-of-the-art advances in the design of periodic microstructures of multi-functional materials for a range of physical properties, such as elastic stiffness, Poisson’s ratio, thermal expansion coefficient, conductivity, fluidic permeability, particle diffusivity, electrical permittivity and magnetic permeability, etc.