Speaker
Description
Smart metamaterials, featuring dynamically tunable mechanical properties, represent a promising frontier in structural engineering and advanced robotics. Tunable properties can be introduced through several approaches, e.g., by designing geometric instability mechanisms, by embedding actuators within metamaterials, or by pre-tensioning lattice metamaterial struts. In this context, this study presents the design and numerical characterization of a class of smart Triply Periodic Minimal Surface (TPMS) metamaterials where hollow sheet-based architectures are filled with a magnetorheological (MR) fluid. The MR fluid is leveraged to achieve a dynamically tunable and fully reversible mechanical response by applying an external magnetic field, which modifies the fluid’s yield stress. Multiphysics finite element simulations were carried out in COMSOL 6.4 to characterize the magneto-mechanical behavior of the TPMS metamaterial subjected to large deformations. The numerical findings demonstrate that filling hollow TPMS architectures with MR fluids enables effective control over structural stiffness and energy absorption. Ongoing and future work focuses on experimental validation through manufactured prototypes, as well as investigating potential self-sensing capabilities to pave the way for fully autonomous metamaterials
