17. December 2025
on-site: seminar room 308
digital: link via E-Mail ([email protected])
16:00-17:00: Scientific Talk by Laura Lindner (HSU / UniBW H): FEM Simulation of TPMS Gyroid under multiaxial-loading: a comparison of solids and different shell elements
Due to a range of factors, including climate change, raw material shortages, increasing demand for comfort, and cost considerations, lightweight construction has become a key focus in industries such as automotive, aviation, and defence.
Triply Periodic Minimal Surface (TPMS) structures, like the Gyroid, are a type of sheet-based metamaterial distinguished by the interaction between their geometric design and the intrinsic properties of the material they are made of. Their mathematically defined topology, along with favourable mechanical performance and thermal conductivity, has attracted growing interest in recent research 1. Sheet-based metamaterials provide superior mechanical properties compared to strut-based metamaterials, making them particularly valuable for lightweight construction and impact-resistant applications 2. However, not all applications can be adequately assessed through experiments alone due to constraints like time, cost, material availability and feasibility. In these cases, simulations become a critical tool for evaluating performance. Simulations offer the advantage of providing detailed insights into the behaviour of materials and structures under various loading conditions without the need for costly and time-consuming experiments. However, the accuracy and reliability of these simulations are highly dependent on many factors among them: the material parameters used and the choice of element types.
Element types play a crucial role in FEM simulations. In the context of TPMS structures, simulations may require the use of both shell elements and solid elements depending on the specific requirements of the model. Shell elements are often used to represent thin-walled structures, such as the surfaces of the TPMS Gyroid, and are beneficial in capturing bending and stretching behaviours with fewer degrees of freedom. These elements are computationally efficient, especially when modelling large-scale structures. In contrast, solid elements are used to model the volumetric behaviour of materials and are typically employed when a more accurate representation of internal stress distributions, strain, and failure modes is necessary. Solid elements provide more a higher level of detail, especially in areas where load concentrations or complex geometries are present.
To ensure the accuracy of the simulations, it is essential to compare the results obtained from both types of elements with experimental data. This comparison helps to validate the simulation models and refine the boundary conditions, ensuring that the predictions made by the FEM simulations are as close to real-world behaviour as possible and helps for a better understanding of the performance of TPMS Gyroid structures. The use of both shell and solid elements within FEM allows for a comprehensive analysis, leveraging the benefits of each element type to capture both the global behaviour and localized details of TPMS structures.
17:00-18:00: HPC Café with Vahid Jafari (HSU/UniBw H)
[1]: Surjadi, J.U., Gao, L., Du, H., Li, X., Xiong, X., Fang, N.X. and Lu, Y. (2019) Adv. Eng. Mater., 21: 1800864
[2]: N. Novak, O. Al-Ketan, L. Krstulović-Opara, R. Rowshan, R. K. Abu Al-Rub, M.Vesenjak, Z. Ren