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Protective applications in extreme environments demand thermally stable materials with superior modulus, strength, and specific energy absorption (SEA) at lightweight. However, these properties typically have a trade-off. Hierarchically…
Flexible mechanical metamaterials possess repeating structural motifs that imbue them with novel, exciting properties including programmability, anomalous elastic moduli and nonlinear and robust response. We address such structures via…
It is well known that viable architectural structures can be identified by locating the critical points of the gravitational potential energy congruent with some fixed surface metric. This is because, if the walls are thin, the lowest…
We investigate the out-of-plane shape morphing capability of single-material elastic sheets with architected cut patterns that result in arrays of tiles connected by flexible hinges. We demonstrate that a non-periodic cut pattern can cause…
Shape-morphing metamaterials enable adaptive structures capable of complex functional deformations, with applications ranging from reconfigurable structures and soft robotics to medical devices. However, their design remains challenging due…
This work presents a multi-scale design methodology for the deterministic optimisation of thin-walled composite structures integrating a global-local approach for the assessment of the buckling strength and a dedicated strategy to recover…
Cellular solids and micro-lattices are a class of lightweight architected materials that have been established for their unique mechanical, thermal, and acoustic properties. It has been shown that by tuning material architecture, a…
A numerical study on the elastic response of single- and multi-layer systems formed by alternating pentamode lattices and stiffening plates is presented. Finite element simulations are conducted to analyze the dependence of the effective…
The project aims to explore a novel way to design and produce cellular materials with good energy absorption and recoverability properties. Spinodoid structures offer an alternative to engineering structures such as honeycombs and foam with…
A natural embodiment for multifunctional materials combining energy-storing capabilities and structural mechanical properties are layered structures, similar to both laminate structural composites and electrochemical energy storage devices.…
In this paper we present the theoretical considerations and the design evolution of a proof-of-concept reconfigurable metasurface, primarily used as a tunable microwave absorber, but also as a wavefront manipulation and polarization…
Gels are used to design bilayered structures with high residual stresses. The swelling of a thin layer on a compliant substrate leads to compressive stresses. The post-buckling of this layer is investigated experimentally; the wavelengths…
This paper examines various ways of improving the impact resilience of protective structures. Such structures' purpose is to dissipate an impact's energy while avoiding cracking and failure. We have tested the reaction of plane…
Manipulating the way in which colloidal particles self-organise is a central challenge in the design of functional soft materials. Meeting this challenge requires the use of building blocks that interact with one another in a highly…
Materials featuring anomalous suppression of density fluctuations over large length scales are emerging systems known as disordered hyperuniform. The underlying hidden order renders them appealing for several applications, such as light…
Ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC) is well-known for its ultra-high compressive strength and sustained post-cracking tensile ductility, making it an attractive choice for the construction of modern structures. Prestressed UHPC members,…
Soft materials capable of large inelastic deformation play an essential role in high-performance nacre-inspired architectured materials with a combination of stiffness, strength and toughness. The rigid "building blocks" made from glass or…
It is shown that a compound elastic structure, which displays a dynamic instability, may be designed as the union (or 'fusion') of two structures which are stable when separately analyzed. The compound elastic structure has two degrees of…
Modern experimental methods enable the creation of self-assembly building blocks with tunable interactions, but optimally exploiting this tunability for the self-assembly of desired structures remains an important challenge. Many studies of…
Composite materials are used across engineering applications for their superior mechanical performance, a result of efficient load transfer between the structure and matrix phases. However, the inherently two-dimensional structure of…