An Inverse Method Allowing User-Specified Layouts of Magnetized Microfibers in Solidifying Composites

Abstract

A new concept for controlled manufacturing of specialty composite materials has been developed. It is based on the concept of aligning magnetizable microfibers tangent to magnetic field lines of force. This paper offers a method that allows users to specify desired patterns of the magnetic lines of force that can be achieved by an appropriate positioning of magnets of various strengths along the boundaries of the composites' curing container. An improved analytical model and a numerical algorithm have been developed for the prediction of the magnetic force lines inside a flowing and solidifying melt. This analysis code was combined with a hybrid constrained optimization algorithm that minimizes a normalized sum of least square differences between the user-specified and the predicted patterns of the magnetic lines of force. This software package was used to inversely evaluate the strengths, locations, and orientations of magnets needed to generate the user-specified patterns of the magnetic lines of force in the solidifying composite thus verifying the conceptual feasibility of this novel manufacturing process.