Designing 3D Printed Metamaterials with MOLACO
Open Access
- Author:
- Cummings, Natalie
- Millennium Scholars Program:
- Materials Science and Engineering (MATSE)
- Degree:
- Bachelor of Science
- Document Type:
- Thesis
- Thesis Supervisor:
- Douglas Henry Werner, Thesis Supervisor
Robert Allen Kimel, Advisor - Keywords:
- metamaterials
low-index
zero-index
3d printing
MOLACO
optimization algorithm
MATLAB
VisualBasic
HFSS - Abstract:
- Metamaterials, which gain their properties from their physical structure rather than their elemental composition, can open possibilities in a variety of different fields and applications. By utilizing the Werner lab’s MOLACO (Multi-Objective Lazy Ant Colony Optimization) algorithm, nontraditional features with desired properties, such as low or zero refractive index, can be found. This project sought to adapt MOLACO, which was previously used for Frequency Selective Surfaces, for use with metamaterials, by utilizing a GitHub API which allows HFSS to be called from within MATLAB. The API works by creating a script in VisualBasic through MATLAB code which can then implement commands within HFSS. This internal modeling allows the feature to be analyzed via the Anisotropic Inversion Algorithm (AIA), which assesses the feature’s correlation to the desired properties. The modeling functionality was completed and tested for 3x3x3 search spaces. This allows each meandered path to be created and analyzed in HFSS without leaving MATLAB. Future work will include the implementation of the AIA and further testing within MOLACO.