Ján Pravda, M. Sc.

Developments in the field of additive manufacturing are opening up new possibilities for producing complex components. These can consist of several materials (e.g. steel and aluminum alloys) and have specific micro- and macrostructures. So-called hybrid porous materials are the focus of the Collaborative Research Center / Transregio (TRR) 375: "Multifunctional high-performance components made of hybrid porous materials (HyPo materials)", of which the IKM is also a part.

Our task is to design the most optimal component based on given boundary conditions. For this purpose, we use thermodynamic topology optimization, which we extend to encompass the properties of the HyPo materials. The optimization is carried out both at the macro level (shape of the component, porosity and material composition) and at the micro level (actual microstructure) and is therefore very computationally intensive. To speed up the process, a suitable neural network is being developed that should deliver an optimal and manufacturable microstructure after training.

The project is in close cooperation with other sub-projects of the TRR 375 research network, with the aim of gaining a holistic insight into HyPo materials.