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Finite element models of the thorax are under development to assist vehicle safety researchers with the design of countermeasures such as advanced restrain systems. Computational models have become more refined with increasing geometrical…
Soft robots are known for their ability to perform tasks with great adaptability, enabled by their distributed, non-uniform stiffness and actuation. Bending is the most fundamental motion for soft robot design, but creating robust, and…
We describe size-varying cylindrical particles made from silicone elastomers that can serve as building blocks for robotic granular materials. The particle size variation, which is achieved by inflation, gives rise to changes in stiffness…
Fueled by their excellent stiffness-to-weight ratio and the availability of mature manufacturing technologies, filament wound carbon fiber reinforced polymers represent ideal materials for thin-walled laminate structures. However, their…
Mechanical metamaterials are periodic lattice structures with complex unit cell architectures that can achieve extraordinary mechanical properties beyond the capability of bulk materials. A new class of metamaterials is proposed, whose…
Precipitation of fine particles into the base material of a metal is a potent strengthening mechanism. This is numerically analyzed within a continuum framework based on a higher order strain gradient plasticity theory and by use of an…
This work proposes a new efficient approach for calculating the bending stiffness of two-dimensional materials using simple atomistic tests on small periodic unit cells. The tests are designed such that bending deformations are dominating…
Shell structures with a high stiffness-to-weight ratio are desirable in various engineering applications. In such scenarios, topology optimization serves as a popular and effective tool for shell structures design. Among the topology…
This paper presents a novel, modular, cable-driven soft robotic arm featuring multi-segment reconfigurability. The proposed architecture enables a stackable system with independent segment control, allowing scalable adaptation to diverse…
Shell buckling is central in many biological structures and advanced functional materials, even if, traditionally, this elastic instability has been regarded as a catastrophic phenomenon to be avoided for engineering structures. Either way,…
Achieving damage tolerance in composite materials remains a central challenge in materials science. Conventional strategies often rely on filler incorporation or chemical modification, which can limit energy dissipation and constrain…
We study the bending of a book-like system, comprising a stack of elastic plates coupled through friction. The behavior of this layered system is rich and nontrivial, with a non-additive enhancement of the apparent stiffness and a…
Metasurfaces advanced the field of optics by reducing the thickness of optical components and merging multiple functionalities into a single layer device. However, this generally comes with a reduction in performance, especially for…
A method to create a highly homogeneous magnetic field by applying topology optimized, additively manufactured shimming elements is investigated. The topology optimization algorithm can calculate a suitable permanent and nonlinear soft…
We synthesize geometrically tailorable anisotropic plates by combining button shaped fish-scale like features on soft substrates, then lacing them with high-stiffness strings. This creates a new type of biomimetic architectured structure…
Optimized topology of bi-material acoustic metamaterial lattice plates is studied for maximized locally resonant bandgap of flexural guided waves. Optimized layout of the two relatively stiff and compliant material phases in the design…
We investigate the structure and mechanical behavior of assemblies of frictionless, nearly rigid equal-sized beads, in the quasistatic limit, by numerical simulation. Three different loading paths are explored: triaxial compression,…
Auxetic materials are a novel class of mechanical metamaterials which exhibit an interesting property of negative Poisson ratio by virtue of their architecture rather than composition. It has been well established that a wide range of…
Strength, ductility, and failure properties of metals are tailored by plastic deformation routes. Predicting these properties requires modeling of the structural dynamics and stress evolution taking place on several length scales. Progress…
In this paper a phase-field approach for structural topology optimization for a 3D-printing process which includes stress constraint and potentially multiple materials or multiscales is analyzed. First order necessary optimality conditions…