M3: macro-level modelling

M3

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Contact our program manager Griet Van Cauwenberghe

MacroModelMat (M3)

Manufacturers in the transportation, wind energy and machinery sector are increasingly using lightweight materials to reduce the eco foot print of their products. This is especially true for the transportation sector, where substantial deployment of lightweight design and materials such as composites is the only viable path to meeting the ever more stringent CO2 emission norms. However, the widespread use of lightweight materials in industrial design and development is limited by the lack of predictive modeling tools to predict the macro level behavior of lightweight materials structures.

The MacroModelMat (M3) program addresses this gap in efficient macro-level predictive modeling tools for new lightweight material systems.

The key objective of the program is the development of an integrated numerical simulation methodology for the multi-attribute mechanical behavior of new lightweight materials such as fiber-reinforced composites and 3D printed materials. The MacroModelMat program covers predictive CAE modeling for multiple functional performance attributes such as: static strength and stiffness, dynamic strength (fatigue), crash worthiness & crush and NVH/Acoustics.

The industrial consortium consists of industrial players representing different positions in the value chain:

Solution and Services Providers:
- Simulation and Test Solutions
- Additive Manufacturing Solutions
- High precision measurement equipment

Product Manufacturers from various industrial sectors: automotive, aerospace, energy, industrial equipment, sports ...

The consortium is further completed with academia and research institutes that are leading R&D players in the field of modeling, characterization and manufacturing of lightweight structures (composites, additive manufacturing materials …).

Projects

PROCSIMA (ICON)

PROCSIMA targets to enable a better understanding of the metal Additive Manufacturing printing and post-processing steps and how they affect part performance, using multi-physics, multi-scale process simulation validated with measurements. It will contain efforts on: (i) process simulation at meso- and micro-scale, (ii) virtual material characterization and (iii) AM-enhanced performance simulation at the part level.

PROPEL (ICON)

ProPeL stands for “PROcess and PErformance simulation of Lightweight structures” and is a SIM ICON project. The key objective of ProPeL is to develop efficient and accurate simulation tools of the manufacturing process steps for thermoplastic polymers materials (both reinforced as unreinforced) and link the effect of part manufacturing to part performance.

MOR4MDESIGN (SBO)

The development of model order reduction methods for the acceleration of multi-scale simulations is indispensable for the further advancement of material-by-design applications. This project therefore aims to develop model order reduction techniques for efficient multi-scale simulation of multiple attributes with a dependency on multiple design and manufacturing parameters.

DETECT-ION (ICON)

“Model-supported non-destructive testing for the detection of defects in lightweight structures: an industrial solution”. The general objective of this ICON project is to develop industrial non-destructive testing (NDT) techniques for damage and defect detection and characterisation in composite and 3D-printed structures bringing together innovations in excitation, sensing, digital data processing and numerical modelling.

FATAM (ICON)

FATAM: “Fatigue of Additive Manufactured components – Relating AM process conditions to long-term dynamic performance of metallic AM parts”. This ICON project aims to build up an evolving and online database containing AM material fatigue properties for Ti6Al4V and 316L samples produced by Selective Laser Melting (SLM) and Direct Energy Deposition (DED) with fixed optimal scanning parameters.

DETECT-IV (SBO)

“Model-supported development of non-destructive testing (NDT) methods for defect DETECTion in composite parts with Industrial complexity and Volume production”. The goal is to develop novel NDT techniques that can detect defects in composite parts with industrial complexity, and this within a limited inspection time so that inspection of composite components in volume production becomes feasible.

M3NVH (ICON)

Developing numerical methods aiming at the optimization of add-on treatment and damping in lightweight design, and to build an understanding and know-how of those tools and involved mechanisms by validating with industrial cases. This project is part of the SIM program MacroModelMat (M3) on macro-level predictive modeling, design and optimization of lightweight material systems.

M3STRENGTH (ICON)

The goal of this ICON project “M3Strength” is to establish accurate simulation methodology with regard to static strength and fatigue of composites and to optimize the efficiency of the simulation methodology to enable an efficient virtual design approach of composite components and sub-systems. This project is in close collaboration and complementary to the SBO project "M3Strength".

AMCAE (ICON)

AMCAE: “basic mechanical properties simulation of additive manufacturing lightweight materials through CAE”. The goal is to investigate methodologies for predictive simulation of parts made with Additive Manufacturing techniques. The simulation must allow predicting the mechanical behaviour of parts which incorporate lightweight structures, such as lattice structures.

M3STRENGTH (SBO)

The SBO project “M3Strength” has as objectives to develop efficient predictive CAE modeling for quasi static and fatigue strength and high speed strength in the meso-macro-scale on a number of selected structural composites material systems. The work packages: efficient predictive modeling for quasi-static & fatigue strength, efficient predictive modeling for crashworthiness and material characterization for strength.

M3

General information