Lightweight design and simulation

Lightweight materials and advanced design strategies play a crucial role in the transition towards more sustainable mobility and energy systems. Developing next-generation engineering solutions requires bridging fundamental materials science with innovative manufacturing approaches, ensuring both performance and sustainability.

The group’s mission is to pioneer multiscale materials modelling and simulation, fostering innovation in lightweight design for next-generation engineering solutions. Research spans from the atomic to the macroscopic scale, developing computational tools that connect molecular mechanisms to overall structural performance, while addressing material variability and uncertainty. By integrating theoretical modelling, virtual testing and experimental validation, the group optimizes material properties to improve mechanical performance, durability and sustainability.

Additive Manufacturing (AM) is leveraged to push the boundaries of lightweight design and create energy-efficient, high-performance material architectures. By coupling AM with polymeric composites, research efforts focus on the manufacture of complex, weight-saving structures with reduced environmental impact for the automotive and aerospace industries. 

The group combines expertise in material and process characterization as well as simulation to address sustainability challenges and improve lifecycle performance. It develops design rules and workflows that promote direct recyclability and material reuse.

Key innovation areas include ultra-lightweight components for electric vehicles, crash-resistant automotive structures, and advanced battery enclosures. By integrating AM with advanced fabrication and joining technologies, the group  also explores new possibilities for cost-efficient, flexible manufacturing, with broad applications across mobility, aerospace and renewable energy sectors. 

These advances aim not only to reduce vehicle weight and improve efficiency but also to support sustainable, cutting-edge engineering solutions for the future of mobility. In particular, the group expertise focuses on:

As such, the group tackles several key challenges:

• Material Variability and Uncertainty: Addressing the inherent variability in materials to ensure consistent performance.
• Integration of AM with Traditional Manufacturing: Combining new and traditional manufacturing methods to enhance flexibility and efficiency.
• Optimization of Mechanical Performance and Durability: Ensuring that lightweight designs do not compromise on strength or longevity.
• Design for Manufacturability: Incorporating manufacturing constraints early in the design process to ensure feasibility, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness.
• Virtual Testing and Experimental Validation: Balancing theoretical models with real-world testing to validate performance.