Computational design of bioinspired minimal surface metamaterial for acoustic applications

Abstract

Material science encompasses various branches, including metamaterials. Metamaterials are artificially designed structures that do not exist in nature, and their design necessitates computational science and geometric knowledge. They are closely linked to the macrostructure, lattice crystal, and shape of geometries. Nature itself provides geometric inspirations for wave manipulation mechanisms, found in exoskeletal insects, sea urchins, butterfly wings, plants, and more. This research delves into an in-depth exploration of biomimetic geometries in living organisms and the bioinspired computational design of tunable Schwarz primitive triply periodic minimal surface metamaterials. It also investigates their diverse utilizations in acoustics, spanning biomedical, non-medical biotechnology, biophilic design, and architecture. Schwarz metamaterial derivatives offer multiple bandgap for hierarchical sound wave control and bandgap design tailored for specific wave manipulation applications, facilitating more efficient sound blocking and wave manipulation. Then, data science and artificial intelligence are leveraged to comprehend sound wave mechanisms and propagation patterns over collected dataset. The research also highlights potential applications of biomimetic minimal surfaces in small structures, intelligent systems, adaptive meta-structures, and sustainable design. Finally, it addresses the limitations and manufacturing challenges of minimal surface metamaterials, while considering cost modeling and the mathematical principles governing the acoustic efficiency of minimal surface metamaterials from an engineering economy perspective.