Microstructural design of connective base cells for functionally graded materials

摘要

Control of compositions and microstructures plays a significant role on developing functionally graded material (FGM). The existing fabrication technologies allow placing multiple compositions in such a way that a desirable gradient of effective physical properties can be achieved. It is interesting to explore how to design microstructure for the same purpose. This paper introduces an inverse homogenization procedure to FGM design. A quasi-periodic base cell (PBC) is optimized for attaining a specific gradient of Young's modulus. To ensure proper connectivity between adjacent PBCs, heat sinks originally used in thermal conduction problem are employed as connection constraints. The capability of this technique is demonstrated by the examples of FGM microstructural design.