Controllable metamaterials and smart structures: Nonlinear problems, modelling and experiments

• Applicant: Professor Dr.-Ing. Alexander Popp
• Subject Area: Mechanics
• Term: since 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 490743767

The project aims to broaden the current concept of passive metamaterials (MM) in the form of periodical structures towards a new class of smart controllable MM, which open new perspectives for engineering applications. These new periodic structures are constituted by elastic and viscoelastic materials combined with controllable electroactive materials with piezoelectric, electro- and magnetostrictive properties. By incorporating such tailored electroactive components into the locally periodic microstructures, and by providing suitable mechanisms for their active control, it will be possible to tune dynamic properties of such new MM in time. Nonlinear response of electroactive MM and their behavior as controllable actuators in the context of controlling wave processes, internal attenuation, frequency bands and energy harvesting will be studied. Designing of such MM requires the synergy of multiscale and multi-physics continuum modelling, homogenization, advanced numerical methods, optimization and experimental validation.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Czech Republic
• Cooperation Partners: Dr. Radek Kolman; Professor Dr.-Ing. Eduard Rohan