The group has obtained a grant from the Spanish Ministerio de Economia y Competividad, under the I+D - Retos 2014 framework. The project is called "Multi-scale and multi-objective optimization of composite laminate structures (OMMC)".  The PIs of the project are Dr. Gabriel Bugeda and Dr. Xavier Martinez.

Project Summary:

Laminate composites have become the optimal material for the structural applications requiring of excellent stiffness-weight and strength-weight ratios. Among the different composite materials available, this project will focus in textile laminates. Their ease of conformance to complex geometries (drapability) and reduced manufacturing time makes them excellent candidates to replace conventional materials, such as steel and aluminum, for their use in mass transportation devices, such as automobiles. A first example of this technology is found in the new electric car developed by BMW. Despite the small that may be the weight reduction obtained with the new materials, if it is applied to a large number of vehicles, it can lead to a large improvement in transportation sustainability.

To achieve this objective, this project will develop a material design platform capable of providing a composite configuration that will optimize the composite mechanical performance and its structural adaptability. This will be achieved with the development of a multi-scale, multi-objective material design optimization code. This procedure will be incorporated in a FEM code with a new laminate macro-element specially designed for the multi-scale optimization.

In order to optimize composite configuration it is necessary a correct simulation and analysis of the different micro-structural interactions that take place between the composite components. This can be achieved with a multi-scale procedure, such as numerical homogenization. This consist in obtaining the composite performance from the simulation of a representative volume element (RVE). The results obtained from this model are used afterwards to calculate the structure response to the actions applied.

The multi-scale, multi-objective optimization procedure that will be developed in the framework of this project consists in the modification of the inner configuration of the composite material (micro-scale) in order to obtain different improvements on the structure (macro-scale). The optimization process not only has to modify the composite configuration, as a bulk material, but it also has to be capable to define different composite configurations in different structure regions in order to improve the adaptability of the material to the actual application in which it is used.

This project will also develop a new laminate macro-element that will incorporate the optimization procedure naturally. These elements will have to fulfill also other requirements specific of transportation structures such as handle large curvature gradients, changes in material orientation, variations of material through their thickness, etc.

The outcome of this project will be a numerical tool capable of obtaining an optimized design of the composite material adjusted to the structure in which it is used. The code developed will lead to safer designs that will contain less material, with the consequent reduction in price, weight and energy requirements of the structure