A new ERC Starting Grant at Politecnico to design the metastructures of the future
The challenge at the heart of R3DEFINE, Reconfigurable, Responsive and Robust 3D mEtastructures For frequency IsolatioN and filtEring, is to develop structures that reduce vibrations while also supporting heavy loads. The project is led by Riccardo Augello, a researcher in the MUL2 – MULtilayered structures and MULtifield analyses group in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering-DIMEAS at Politecnico, coordinated by Professor Erasmo Carrera.
The project, funded with €1.475 million, has been awarded an ERC Starting Grant, one of the most prestigious and competitive funding schemes of the European Research Council, aimed at researchers in the early stages of their independent careers, who are developing projects with high innovation potential.
During the next five years, the R3DEFINE project will develop new simulation tools to study and design the behaviour of three-dimensional metastructures digitally, before physically building them. The new model will be based on the Carrera Unified Formulation (CUF), a method developed by the MUL2 group that accurately represents highly complex structures while reducing computational costs. With the new model, R3DEFINE will simulate how metastructures deform, change configuration, and respond to different stresses, essential information for designing solutions capable of effectively controlling vibrations.
Central to R3DEFINE are metastructures, engineered structures whose properties depend not only on the materials used but above all on their geometry and internal architecture. By suitably adjusting their configuration, it becomes possible to control how vibrations propagate through them and to determine which frequencies are isolated or filtered.
The project's first challenge concerns precisely the frequencies that are hardest to control: ultra-low frequencies. Isolating them requires structures that tend to be highly deformable, a trait that is difficult to reconcile with the need to support heavy loads. R3DEFINE aims to overcome this limitation by designing metastructures capable of combining ultra-low frequency isolation, robustness, and load-bearing capacity.
A second goal concerns the direction of vibrations. R3DEFINE aims to achieve omnidirectional isolation, meaning the ability to dampen vibrations regardless of their direction and origin. Achieving this requires genuinely three-dimensional architectures, which are far more complex to simulate than the two-dimensional models most commonly used today.
These challenges are captured in the very name R3DEFINE, which reflects the three defining features of the project – reconfigurable, responsive, and robust – together with the three-dimensional nature of the metastructures. The innovative element is precisely bringing these features together in a single solution, designing compact, resilient structures that can reconfigure themselves and isolate multi-directional, very low-frequency vibrations.
To develop these structures, R3DEFINE will combine numerical simulations, fabrication, and experimental testing. The models will guide the design and optimisation of prototypes, which will then be built and subjected to experimental testing to verify their behaviour and validate the solutions developed. The results could pave the way for new applications across numerous sectors, from aerospace engineering to earthquake protection.
In the aerospace field, one possible application concerns the adapter that connects a satellite to its launch vehicle. During launch, the satellite is subjected to intense vibrations that can damage its components or compromise its functioning. Integrating metastructures into this interface could help absorb and limit the transmission of vibrations, better protecting the satellite during the most critical phases of the mission.
The potential is also significant in earthquake engineering, where one of the challenges of isolation systems is reducing the transmission of earthquake-induced vibrations while continuing to support heavy loads. The solutions being studied under R3DEFINE aim precisely to reconcile these two requirements, contributing to the development of more effective seismic protection systems.
Coming just a few months after the conclusion of NOVITAS – Nonlinear analysis for virtual design of composite deployable space booms and membranes, Riccardo Augello's previous project funded by the European Union under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions, the new ERC Starting Grant marks the start of a new phase in the researcher's career. As he explains: "With R3DEFINE we want to overcome one of the main trade-offs in vibration isolation: achieving an effective response at ultra-low frequencies without sacrificing the ability to support heavy loads. We will design reconfigurable three-dimensional metastructures, combining simulations based on the Carrera Unified Formulation with the fabrication and experimental validation of prototypes. The goal is to develop compact, omnidirectional solutions applicable across all fields where significant attenuation of incoming vibrations is required."