Overview
This repository provides a general-purpose Julia framework for simulating fully coupled magneto-mechanical behavior in soft and hard magnetic materials. The code supports both 2D and 3D simulations and includes an extensive library of constitutive models, enabling users to explore a wide range of material systems and actuation mechanisms. While the framework is broadly applicable, several examples focus on ultra-soft magnetoactive materials relevant to bioengineering and soft robotics, where accurate modeling of magneto-mechanical coupling remains a key challenge. These examples illustrate how the toolkit can be used for realistic simulation, analysis, and design of next-generation magnetoactive structures.
Implementation
All numerical experiments were conducted in the Julia programming language, utilizing the Gridap framework for the numerical approximation of partial differential equations (PDEs), and the HyperFEM package for modeling nonlinear physical phenomena in multifunctional materials. Key features of the framework include:
- A modular architecture for constitutive modeling, numerical solvers, and data analysis
- Interfaces for coupled-field simulations, enabling the interaction of magnetic and mechanical effects.
- Ready-to-use scripts for benchmark problems and topology/material optimization workflows.
- Design of soft robotic actuators with tunable magneto-mechanical responses.
- Modeling of biocompatible magneto-responsive scaffolds.
- Exploration of anisotropic behaviors in ultra-soft magnetorheological elastomers (hMREs).
- Integration into topology optimization frameworks for intelligent material design.
In order to give credit to the contributors, we ask that you please reference the paper:
C. Perez‐Garcia, R. Ortigosa, J. Martínez‐Frutos, and D. Garcia‐Gonzalez, Topology and material optimization in ultra-soft magnetoactive structures: making advantage of residual anisotropies. Adv. Mater. (2025): e18489. https://https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.202518489
- Sponsorship agreement UC3M-Navantia-Monodon.
- European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Program (grant agreement no. 947723,project: 4D-BIOMAP, and grant agreement no. 101247449, project: MAGMATED),
- Grant PID2022-141957OA-C22 funded by MICIU/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and by ”ERDF A way of making Europe”.
- Grant 21996/PI/22. Programme for the development of scientific and technical research by competitive groups, included in the Regional Program for the Promotion of Scientific and Technical Research of Fundación Séneca-Agencia de Ciencia y Tecnología de la Región de Murcia.
Contact the project administrators Jesús Martínez-Frutos, Daniel Garcia-Gonzalez for further questions about licenses and terms of use.