Cross-scale concurrent material-structure design using functionally-graded 3D-printed matematerials.

The objective of the XS-Meta Innovative European Training Network project is to train a new generation of researchers in concurrent material-structure design of high-technology structural systems, using functionally graded 3D-printed metamaterials.

By taking advantage of the unique technological opportunity that the revolution of 3D-printing (3DP) is bringing to industry and engineering, XS-Meta helps the European industry and future academic system by training a highly-educated, goal-oriented generation of scientists and engineers capable of developing high-tech, value-added products to maintain and increase its technological leadership, critical for high living standards in a global marketXS-Meta takes full advantage of new 3D printing (3DP) possibilities at the microscale, to design functionally graded (FG), optimally architected, mechanical metamaterials (MMs) best-suited for the demands at every location in a component.

XS-Meta constitutes a multidisciplinary change of paradigm on how engineering structural design has been performed to date, integrating the metamaterial design concurrently with the structural design through double inverse analyses and surrogate continuum models obtained by data-driven techniques.XS-Meta is a highly multidisciplinary and intersectoral project, involving leading high-tech companies in their field, a National Industrial and Research Centre and complementary leading academic research groups.

XS-Meta has the right combination of excellence in research, academic training and industry experience, and high international and intersectoral mobility for developing innovation-oriented, entrepreneurial and creative researchers.

XS-Meta involves “hands-on” experience for the recruited Early Stage Researchers (ESRs), including developing all the steps in the design, structural analysis, manufacturing and testing of high-technology prototypes.