Consortium

Research activities at the Laboratory of Bio-inspired, Bionic, Nano, Meta Materials & Mechanics (http://www.ing.unitn.it/~pugno/) include Mechanics of materials, meta-materials, bio-inspired materials, bionicomposites, nanomaterials such as graphene related materials and nanotubes, fracture mechanics, solid and structural mechanics, etc.. 

Theoretical, numerical and experimental studies in the field of mechanics of materials include:

• Bio-inspired hierarchical super nanomaterials (e.g. self-healing)
• Metamaterials (e.g. seismic shielding)
• Super-strong graphene, nanotubes and related bundles and composites (e.g. flaw tolerant)
• Smart adhesion of insects, spiders and geckos and related gecko-inspired nanostructured surfaces (e.g. peeling theories)
• Self-cleaning & anti-adhesive super-hydrophobic leaves and related lotus-inspired nanostructured surfaces (e.g. anti-ice)
• Spider-silk and web and related spider-inspired super-tough materials and structures (e.g. anti-catastrophes)
• Design and fabrication of Nano Electro Mechanical Systems (e.g. nanotubes or graphene based)
• Hierarchical fibre bundle -or lattice spring- models, ropes, tissues and cellular solids (e.g. role of hierarchy)
• Graphene nanoscrolls and related systems (e.g. nanomotors)
• Nanomedicine: tumor cellular growth, nanovector therapeutics, scaffolds for the regenerative medicine (e.g. tumor cell dynamic resonances)
• Nanoindentation and related size- and shape-effects (e.g. universal scaling laws on hardness)
• Quantized Fracture Mechanics, in quasi-static, dynamic and fatigue regimes (e.g. role of defects in graphene)
• Nanoscale Weibull & Fractal Statistics and related size-effects on material strength (e.g. nanotubes statistics)
• Multiscale fragmentation under impact and explosions and structural dynamics (e.g. universal scaling laws on energy dissipation)
• Nanotribology (e.g. of graphene, biological or hierarchical surfaces)
• Bionicomposites (e.g. bionic silk spun by spiders fed with nanomaterials)

The Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (Empa, German acronym for Eidgenössische Materialprüfungs- und Forschungsanstalt) is an interdisciplinary Swiss research institute for applied materials sciences and technology. As part of the Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology Domain, it is an institution of the Swiss Federation. Empa also provides support in teaching to both of the Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology in Zurich (ETH) and Lausanne (EPF), as well as Swiss universities and universities of applied sciences.

Laboratory for Acoustics / Noise Control

The activities of the Empa Laboratory for Acoustics/Noise Control focus on noise, considered as one of the major environmental problems, and on soundscapes in buildings and in the built environment, which have a substantial impact on health, wellbeing and performance.

It is therefore the Lab's mission to investigate and understand the mechanisms of sound generation, transmission and radiation, as well as the effects of noise. On this basis, the lab develops low noise technologies, models and tools together with industrial partners. Further, the lab offers high quality services and supports the governmental agencies with science-based solutions for legal noise abatement.

Research focuses on the following two topics:

Environmental Acoustics – Impact Driven Noise Control
The Environmental Acoustics Group develop models and tools to calculate noise exposure. Based on auralizations and psycho-acoustic experiments it studies the human perception of sound and the spontaneous reaction to noise.

Materials & Systems – Acoustics in Structures and Complex Materials
Top-notch modeling and prediction in acoustics and material dynamics complements our experimental excellence for an application-driven environment. Here, understanding the dynamic behavior of structures is important in order to predict the radiated sound level and to investigate new methods for noise control. Experimental, numerical and analytical techniques are used to explore and develop novel materials and to optimize them for acoustic applications. The main objectives are: modeling of vibrations of complex materials such as layered materials, composites, wood, highly damped and granular materials, the numerical prediction and experimental validation of sound radiation of vibrating structures including fluid-structure interaction problems, the non-destructive evaluation of material parameters using wave and vibration-based techniques and the development of materials with exotic dynamic properties.

Empa is involved in the manufacturing task (4.3), as well as in the measurements on ad- hoc scaled and full-scale demonstrators performed to evaluate the absorption coefficient and sound insulation index in anechoic chamber, impedance tube or ad-hoc conceived experiments (task 6.1).

Empa will lead task 6.2, devoted to provide the experimental evidence of highway/railway ull-scale barrier to inhibit/absorb audible waves (20 Hz - 10 kHz range) and participate to the task 6.3, dedicated to the prototype testing of a noise coating dedicated to an MRI medical equipment.

Prof Craster group’s research lies in the field of applied mathematics in particular wave mechanics, metamaterials, fluid mechanics and elasticity. The Centre for Plasmonics & Metamaterials is a cross-faculty grouping at Imperial College London covering a broad range of research in plasmonics and metamaterials, working on both fundamental research, through theory and proof-of-concept experimental studies, and on application-oriented work towards highly disruptive technologies for energy, communication and computing, as well as healthcare. 

Main research topics: Applied Mathematics, Fluid Dynamics, Solid Mechanics, Metamaterials, Solid State Physics

The team at IMP PAN lead by Prof Ostachowicz is a world-wide recognised group of professionals pushing forward structural health monitoring technologies. They specialise in a broad range of experimental methods such as guided wave propagation, electromechanical impedance, methods based on fibre Bragg grating strain and temperature measurements, vibro-thermography, terahertz techniques, etc. They are also engaged in the development of in-house code for elastic wave propagation simulations in composite materials.

The main goal of their activities is to increase the safety of structures.

They will be involved in the design and development of novel NDT device made of a metamaterial.

The primary function of the device is filtering and focusing on nonlinear Lamb waves coming from defects.

It will allow detection and monitoring of defects at an early stage of growth.

They will perform experimental measurements of wave propagation phenomena in macro-scale specimens as well as vibration measurements. Full wavefield measurements will be conducted by using scanning laser Doppler vibrometer. The obtained data will be used for model validation.

The metamaterial team is hosted by the group of structural mechanics and monitoring. The team carries out research on structured materials and frames for vibration control, earthquake engineering and elastic energy harvesting. The team specializes in both numerical modelling and experimentation. Applications are carried out in close collaboration with colleagues in earthquake engineering and dynamic of structures. 

Main research topics: Computational Solid Mechanics, Metamaterials, Structural Dynamics, Signal Processing

The group is specialized in direct numerical simulations (DNS) of turbulent flows and non-linear wave systems. Both the Eulerian properties of such systems as well as their Lagrangian ones are studied. The group is part of the INFN “iniziativa specifica” FieldTurb focusing on the problem of “Particles and Fields” transported by, and reacting with, turbulent and complex multi .component/multiphase fluids

Some of the main topics investigated are:

• Two-dimensional and three-dimensional Navier-Stokes turbulence 
• Transport of particles and fields (both active and passive) by fluid flow, including inertial particles, temperature (thermal convection) and polymers
• Non-linear waves in oceanography and optics
• Non-linear Fermi-Pasta-Ulam-Tsingou (FPUT) chains
• Statiscial Mechanics

The CNRS, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (National Center for Scientific Research) is a Government-funded research organization under the French Ministry of Research. CNRS research units employ a large number of permanent researchers, engineers, technicians, and administrative staff. One quarter of French public spending on civilian research goes to the CNRS. The CNRS manages 11000 researchers in 1211 institutes, some in partnership with universities, other research organizations or industry.

As one of the largest fundamental research organizations in Europe, the CNRS is involved in all fields of scientific endeavor and is heavily involved in national, European, and international projects. Interdisciplinary programs and actions offering a gateway into new domains of scientific investigation enable CNRS to address the needs of society and industry.

IEMN is a laboratory of excellence in the field of micro and nanotechnologies and their applications in the fields of information and communication, transport and health. This institute, under the supervision of the CNRS, the University Lille 1, the University of Valenciennes and the ISEN brings together about 250 permanent researchers and 180 PhD students. It benefits from state-of-the-art infrastructures allowing the fabrication and the characterization of micro and nanosystems. 

The Acoustic group
When it was created, the Acoustic Group had an activity mainly focused on the design of transistors in the low and medium frequency ranges with a strong orientation towards the field of sonar and acoustic oceanography. Today the main activities of the group concern:

• Acoustic metamaterials and their applications: these are microstructured synthesis materials designed to have surprising properties that are not found in nature, for example having a negative refractive index or large variations of indices that allow imagining in a near future the manufacture of super-lens or invisibility (acoustic) layers.
• The design of acoustic filters based on phononic crystals for the realization of MEMS radio frequencies

The main contributions of the group to the project BOHEME will be:

WP2 – Contributing to the identification of biological systems with greatest potential for hierarchical structures suitable to inspire the design of hierarchical metamaterials (MMs), as well as participating to the drafting of the general strategies to inspire the design, manufacture and optimization of biologically inspired hierarchical MMs for the next stages of the project.

WP3 – Contributing to the development of analytical and / or numerical tools to extract: (i) main dynamic features (dispersion diagrams, localized modes, internal resonances, stiffening and induced anisotropy) and macro-scale effective structural properties (including strength, toughness etc.) of hierarchical MMs.

WP4 – Participating to the pre-design and design phases of the hierarchical MMs by performing numerical simulations aimed at finding promising configurations for hierarchical MMs capable of exhibiting wave control properties at multiple frequency scales. Beyond establishing the general design criteria (size, shape and constituents of hierarchical MMs), the group will participate to the manufacturing and optimization of the designs.

WP5 – Participating to the experimental verification of scaled and full-scale demonstrators concerning the hierarchical MMs for seismic applications.

WP6 – Coordinate the experimental campaign concerning hierarchical MMs producing noise reduction.

WP7 – Participating to the experimental measurements of the filtering properties of the hierarchical MMs used for NDT purposes, evaluating its potential in damage identification exploiting higher order harmonics generated by localized defects. This will include the identification of nonlinearities through nonlinear wavefield acquisition (via 3D SLDV).

WP8 – To participate into the characterization of water wave devices for energy focusing and harvesting. When possible, the influence on the wave propagation in the case of structural deformation due to incident waves over very thin structures will be investigated, as well as the case of structure-fluid interaction in the case of heavy fluids (such as water).

The group performs modeling and experimental studies of the elastic properties of complex materials/systems exhibiting anomalous/nonlinear behavior. The activity consists in the development of analytical, phenomenological and computational approaches, to support the comprehension and interpretation of experimental data. Merging experimental activities and theoretical approaches allows the optimization and development of new experimental methods, new metamaterial design and the emergence of novel phenomena. The research aims to identify the physical mechanisms responsible of the observed behaviors in specific physical conditions (e.g. low/high frequencies, large strains), in the attempt to reveal useful aspects to exploit in applications in the industrial field.

Main research topics: metamaterials and phononic crystals, nonlinear elasticity:

• Design of novel elastic metamaterials with special filtering and focusing properties (e.g. acoustic diode) and development of self-healing systems for concrete
• Tunable metamaterials: photo-responsive metamaterials
• Effects and interaction between nonlinearity and meta/phononic-structures
• Devices for NDT and nonlinearity detection/enhancement
• Multi-scale modeling of the elastic properties of compact granular media using discrete multistate (phenomenological) approaches and physical models with local interactions
• Characterization of elastic and viscous properties of solids through the separation of damping and modulus nonlinearities
• Application of nonlinear elasticity to the characterization of solid materials, using techniques based on the Scaling Subtraction Method or on Nonlinear Time Reversal and Dynamic AcoustoElastic Testing
• Modeling of the mechanical properties of biological and bioinspired materials, including fracture, vibration damping, adhesion, friction.
• Nanoscale characterization of the topographic, elastic and thermal properties by means of Scanning Probe Microscopy techniques
• Quantification and measurement of (hysteretic) nonlinearity
• Modeling nonlinear elasticity
• Applications to Nonlinear Nondestructive Evaluation
• Nonlinear imaging

Experimental techniques

• Ultrasonics and acoustics Lab. 
• Ultrasonic wave propagation and characterization of different materials and at different frequencies (range 500 Hz – 1 MHz). 
• Surface scanning laser interferometry for linear and nonlinear imaging
• Environmental controlled ultrasonic measurements (temperature and humidity)
• Time reversal imaging

Phononic Vibes introduces a new patented technology with unprecedented performances in the vibration and noise control and isolation, with a circular economy approach.

It originates from the research activity at Politecnico di Milano and Massachusetts Institute of Technology of its founders in the field of meta-materials, to achieve and engineer novel and unmatched properties, focusing on materials with periodic architected topology.

Phononic Vibes generates, with competitive prices, greater performances with respect to products already on the market, in various sectors of application such as industrial, construction and infrastructures.

Vibration Control

Phononic Vibes created a solution to reduce vibration issues caused by trains and trams. Made of concrete and steel, it can be positioned on each side of the railway, without having to remove the railway infrastructure (which is the case for existing solutions). 

Acoustic panels

Made in recycled plastic, our acoustic panels are able to isolate from the noise caused by your neighbours, nearby infrastructures or big machines in the industrial production field.

Noise Control in domestic appliances

Currently working with major appliances companies, Phononic Vibes is prototyping and testing solutions based on its technology for your comfort at home. Our technology could be used on kitchen hoods, washing machines, dishwashers, HVAC systems, etc. 

Phononic Vibes will be involved in the modelling and simulation, prototyping and testing of the outcome of the academic research of the partners, especially for the seismic applications. Thus, they will be mainly involved in WP3 and WP4. The main goal is to bridge the gap with the market, allowing field tests and tests in relevant environments. 

Phononic Vibes workflow starts from numerical simulations of response to noise and vibrations, based on studies and research. The results obtained from this first simulation phase are validated by experimental tests. The goal of this iterative process (study, numerical simulation, experimental validation) is to obtain an industrialized product that has the main characteristic of reducing noise and vibrations thanks to the use of metamaterials.

Multiwave is a deep-science technology company conducting research and development in metamaterial technologies. Multiwave relies on proprietary algorithms to accelerate metamaterial design by orders of magnitude. Multiwave is sector agnostic. From healthcare to bioengineering, from retail to industrial sensors and beyond, Multiwave develops metamaterial technologies that tackle hard problems with big markets.

Multiwave will develop analytical and numerical techniques for the modelling and experimental validation of acoustic metamaterials. Among other applications our interest lies in the eld of meta-absorbers for MRI noise absorption.