Applications of the Homogenization Method to Material Design

The homogenization method is applied to obtain the preferred mechanical characteristics of materials. Since the homogenization method takes into account the effect of microstructural configuration to characterize thermo-mechanical properties of composite materials based on the asymptotic expansion method, our design methods can reflect the micromechanical responses. Two examples of the design-oriented applications are presented: one is the combination with the so-called voxel digitization method to generate finite element models of microstructures based on image processing technology and the other is the inverse optimization together with the generalized layout design method of a structure. While the former finds the optimal material and material configurations of composites, the latter creates the material with properties not hitherto available in single phase materials.