Optimal design of graded particle packings based on multiscale models

• Applicant: Professor Dr.-Ing. Heiko Briesen
• Subject Area: Mechanical Process Engineering
• Term: since 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 493700036

In analogy to the functionally-graded materials in materials science, a strategy to derive optimally-graded particle packings for process-engineering applications is developed. This approach is motivated by the observation that diverse manufacturing options became available in recent years, e.g., additive manufacturing, which are now used in many branches of science and technology. Such new possibilities allow the well-defined tailoring of porous media to a previously unimaginable degree. However, manufacturing methods have at least for porous media superseded the understanding of what one actually wants to manufacture and which pore scale properties are actually desirable for different applications. With this project we want to contribute to this general problem by addressing porous media with locally varying properties, in particular particle packings. We investigate optimal control as a suitable method for predicting desirable local variations in particle-packing properties based on predefined overall goals. The model-based predictions will be validated using an experimental test system.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants