Data-driven modelling of scalable spinodoid structures for energy absorption

Abstract

The project aims to explore a novel way to design and produce cellular materials with good energy absorption and recoverability properties. Spinodoid structures offer an alternative to engineering structures such as honeycombs and foam with scalability ensuring microscale benefits are reaped on a larger scale. Various materials and topologies have been utilised for numerical modeling and prototyping through additive manufacturing. Each design was evaluated using finite element modelling. Initial results from numerical models show anisotropic structures achieving high energy absorption efficiency. Through data-driven optimisation, results show a peak energy absorption value of 5.34 MJ/m3 for anisotropic columnar structure. A physics-informed biased grid-search optimisation is faster due to parameters being explored in parallel. To validate the numerical model, compressive tests on various prototypes were conducted.