Recent Advances in Modelling and Simulation of Cellular Materials: from Irregular Foams to Regular Lattice Structures

Cellular materials, including both natural and man-made systems, exhibit remarkable mechanical, thermal and functional properties with respect to low density. Traditional foams, inspired by natural cellular materials, have been widely adopted in modern engineering applications (e.g. load bearing, energy absorption, sound insulation and thermal protection). Due to the complicated foaming process, foam microstructures are inherently irregular and random.Enabled by advances in manufacturing techniques such as additive manufacturing, lattice structures have emerged as a new class of cellular materials. In contrast to foams, lattice structures consist of periodic arrays of regular and ordered unit cells, often resulting in enhanced properties. Owing to their high design flexibility, lattice structures can even be engineered to achieve unusual properties (e.g. negative Poisson’s ratio and programmable behavior), thereby opening more possibilities.To guide the design of cellular materials, it is essential to understand the microphysics as well as the structure-property-performance relationships. Modelling and simulation provide a versatile tool for this purpose. However, many challenges exist due to the complex microstructures, imperfection sensitivity, rate sensitivity, temperature dependence, spatial variability, geometrical and material nonlinearities, size effects, multi-scale behavior and interaction between different physical processes.Recent advances in computational mechanics, multi-scale modelling, multi-physics modelling, data-driven modelling and high-fidelity simulation have provided breakthrough opportunities to address the challenges in the modelling and simulation of cellular materials. This Research Topic aims to not only advance the modelling and simulation approaches (e.g. computational performance and uncertainty quantification), but also deepen the understanding of microphysics (e.g. competition between membrane and bending deformation modes) and provide new insights into microstructural features (e.g. what are the dominating features) in cellular materials, through extensive computational studies complemented with experimental efforts. Foams and lattice structures share many common microstructural features and can, to a large extent, be modelled using similar approaches. Yet, the synergies between these two fields have not yet been fully exploited, and interaction between the respective communities remains limited. Therefore, building on the main goals above, this Research Topic also aims to promote knowledge exchange and foster collaboration between the foam and lattice structure communities.We welcome contributions across the full scope of modelling and simulation of cellular materials (including honeycombs and metamaterials). Topics of particular interest include, but are not limited to:• Multi-scale and multi-physics modeling of cellular materials• Homogenization techniques connecting microscale and macroscale• Data-driven and machine learning-based modelling techniques for cellular materials• Uncertainty quantification for modelling and simulation• Microstructure characterization and geometrical model generation• Model calibration and experimental validation• High-fidelity simulation of microscale behavior• Numerical simulation of large-scale component behavior• Numerical simulation under extreme conditions• Modelling of structure-property relationships• Modelling of manufacturing process-induced imperfections• Design and optimization of lattice structures and metamaterials Topic editors: Lei Liu, Dian Xu, Junhao DING Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/80394/recent-advances-in-modelling-and-simulation-of-cellular-materials-from-irregular-foams-to-regular-lattice-structures