An intelligent design system for tailored metamaterial properties

Abstract

Metamaterials are widely studied for their ability to carry human designs and realize exotic, specific physical properties. However, the existing metamaterial design methods are highly dependent on the experience and expertise of the designers. Unlocking the potential of metamaterials requires efficient design methods accessible beyond expert users. This work presents a novel intelligent design system (IDS) for fabricating metamaterials with designated mechanical properties without extensive expertise. The IDS leverages a combined approach of particle swarm and moving morphable components topology optimization, capitalizing on swarm intelligence for efficient material structure generation. The proposed IDS successfully generates tailored metamaterial matrices exhibiting desired elastic properties like Poisson's ratio and elastic modulus for orthotropic and isotropic materials. Innovative development of fuzzy models is achieved to optimize convergence mapping of isotropic mechanical metamaterials for user guidance. Notably, it achieves this even without requiring an initial design, completing the process within minutes and offering seamless integration with MATLAB for portability. From the pre-determination of convergence before design to the export of fabrication models after design, IDS provides a new path to designing metamaterials without needing research experience. This comprehensive, user-friendly system holds immense potential for expansion into 3D design and various metamaterial classes, acting as a valuable bridge for non-experts to achieve metamaterial design.