Ian Galloway presented his work on topology optimization of magnetic soft materials on 24 June at the 20th U.S. National Congress on Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, in a minisymposium organized by Prof. Jie Yin.
Over the preceding eighteen months Ian built a nonlinear extension of the FEniTop framework and implemented a multivariable optimization formulation that designs material distribution, magnetization direction and topology together rather than in sequence. The talk went into how sensitive the optimized designs are to the choice of strain-energy function and of structure–property relation — which is the point of the work, since that choice is usually made without examination — and showed what the joint formulation makes designable.
He started this as an undergraduate researcher and is continuing it as a master’s student. The code is open, and the manuscript followed a few weeks later.
The work has been supported by NSF and by the South Dakota Board of Regents at different stages.