Gradient-based topology optimization of soft dielectrics as tunable phononic crystals

Dielectric elastomers are active materials that undergo large deformations and change their instantaneous moduli when they are actuated by electric fields. By virtue of these features, composites made of soft dielectrics can filter waves across frequency bands that are electrostatically tunable. To date, to improve the performance of these adaptive phononic crystals, such as the width of these bands at the actuated state, metaheuristics-based topology optimization was used. However, the design freedom offered by this approach is limited because the number of function evaluations increases exponentially with the number of design variables. Here, we go beyond the limitations of this approach, by developing an efficient gradient-based topology optimization method. The numerical results of the method developed here demonstrate prohibited frequency bands that are indeed wider than those obtained from the previous metaheuristics-based method, while the computational cost to identify them is reduced by orders of magnitude.