KTH researcher contributes to FMV technology forecast
How can future materials become lighter, stronger and gain entirely new properties? Alexander Grötsch, Assistant Professor at the Department of Engineering Mechanics, is featured in the Swedish Defence Materiel Administration’s Technology Forecast 2025, where mechanical metamaterials are highlighted as an area to watch for future defence applications.
Together with Thomas Frisk at the Swedish Defence University, Alexander Grötsch analysed a study by the German Fraunhofer Institute on the future potential of the technology.
Mechanical metamaterials derive their properties from the design of their internal structures and can, for example, be developed to absorb impacts, damp vibrations or create lightweight and strong structures. According to Grötsch, this opens up possibilities that go beyond those of conventional engineering materials.
“The architectural design of mechanical metamaterials enable their remarkable structure-mechanical property relationships surpassing those of classical engineering materials. They also allow it to create materials with programmable and adaptive behaviors so that we can tailor the material performance spanning from lightweight structures for high-energy impact to (bio-inspired) cellular structures in tissue engineering,” he says.
In FMV’s article, he also discusses research at KTH and the possibilities of using technologies such as 3D printing to create materials with properties tailored to different applications.
Looking ahead, he sees considerable opportunities for KTH to contribute to the development of the field, not least through collaboration across different research disciplines.
“Given the broad spectrum of KTH’s research ranging from basic science to technological applications, I not only see a tremendous opportunity for multidisciplinary projects covering optical, acoustic, electronic, or mechanical properties. We can also cover a multitude of length scales in the quest for new discoveries; from renewable materials to devices for Space. The use of AI based methods will further boost this development,” he says.