Keynote Speaker I:
"Metamaterial-Structured Battery Pack Casings for Enhanced Vibration Isolation"
Abstract: Battery pack casings rated at 12.432 kWh were designed and assessed using two material systems: a conventional aluminum alloy and a lightweight carbon fiber reinforced polyphthalamide (PPA CF) filament (a high-performance, high-temperature nylon composite). Because battery packs experience continual “shaking” during vehicle operation—arising from road roughness, drivetrain excitation, and other sources—this work focuses on reducing random vibration, i.e., a broadband, irregular vibration environment that can contribute to noise, discomfort, and long-term fatigue damage. To improve vibration resistance, we investigated mechanical metamaterials integrated into the casing design. In simple terms, mechanical metamaterials are engineered internal geometries (rather than new chemical compositions) that change how a structure carries loads and transmits vibrations. Two concepts were evaluated: lattice structures (networks of repeating struts/cells that can act like a stiff but lightweight “skeleton”) and auxetic structures (geometries that deform in an unusual way—expanding laterally when stretched—which can alter stiffness, energy absorption, and vibration transmission). A numerical study was conducted to compare baseline casings and metamaterial-enhanced casings under random vibration loading, with vibration responses evaluated at key locations such as the top cover and the center of the front and back walls. For the aluminum casing, both lattice and auxetic designs showed outstanding performance, achieving approximately 97%–99% reduction in vibration levels. For the PPA CF casing, the improvements were more limited and depended on measurement location and direction; the metamaterial concepts reduced longitudinal vibration by about 63.8% at the top cover and 92.8% at the center of the front and back walls. Overall, the results indicate that aluminum alloy provides better vibration-mitigation capability than PPA CF, both with and without metamaterial-inspired structural modifications. The findings also suggest that while metamaterial geometries can be highly effective, their benefits are material- and location-specific, highlighting the need to co-design material selection and internal architecture for targeted vibration control in battery pack enclosures.
Bio-Sketch
Heow Pueh LEE is currently a Professor at the Department of Mechanical Engineering, National University of Singapore. He graduated with first class honours from Cambridge University and PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University. His more recent works focus on acoustics and vibration, metamaterials, and composite structures. He is a Deputy Editor-in-Chief for Applied Acoustics, and member of Editorial Board for the International Journal of Applied Mechanics, Acta Mechanical Sinica, and Scientific Reports. He has more than 500 journal publications with google scholar H index of 81 and citations of more than 28,000.
National University of Singapore, Singapore
Keynote Speaker II:
"Modelling and Optimisation of Condensers with Liquid-Vapor Separation
"
Abstract: TBA
Bio-Sketch
Professor Wang has many years research and teaching experience in thermofluids engineering, building services in universities in China, Japan and the UK. His research interests are in the field of enhanced heat transfer, condensation heat transfer, flow boiling heat transfer, inverse method of heat transfer measurement, molecular dynamics simulations of condensation and boiling/evaporation, multiscale simulations, advanced refrigeration technologies, sustainable thermal energy systems e.g. solar assisted air source heat pump based heating systems and advanced intelligent control for building management systems.
Queen Mary University of London, UK