Multiobjective design of meta-materials exhibiting a targeted non-linear deformation response

This paper presents recent advances in developing a systematic design procedure for nonlinear cellular meta-materials. In previous work by the authors, the Unit Cell Synthesis method was introduced for designing unit-cell-based meta-materials that exhibit targeted nonlinear deformation response. The method is based on a fundamental understanding of simple entities that exhibit geometric nonlinearities under deformation. The geometric parameters associated with these entities can be tuned to achieve the desired nonlinear response. In this work, the original Unit Cell Synthesis method is extended to include a multi-objective optimization step to take into consideration multiple application-specific criteria while optimizing the meta-material design. A case study of designing a meta-material to mimic the nonlinear compressive behavior of an existing elastomer component in a military tracked vehicle is presented to demonstrate the method. Furthermore, to understand the effects of the manufacturing accuracy of design parameters on the performance of the optimized meta-material, a sensitivity analysis is carried out to obtain a feasible range of mechanical behavior for the meta-material and reveal the significance of individual design parameters and their interactions.