Title: Harnessing instabilities in soft structures to enhance performance

Author (Invited): katia bertoldi, SEAS - Harvard university

Abstract:

While the effect of deformation on the mechanical attributes, such as energy absorption, stiffness and thermal properties of cellular materials have been widely investigated, there have been few attempts to test whether the large deformation of these structures may be exploited to systematically achieve additional functionalities. Here, I will show that highly deformable cellular structures are excellent candidates to design a new class of responsive devices. Although instabilities have traditionally been viewed as an inconvenience, I will show that they can be exploited to create materials with novel and switchable functionalities. Possible and exciting applications include materials with unusual properties such negative Poisson’s ratio, phononic crystals with tunable low-frequency acoustic band gaps, reversible encapsulation systems and reusable energy absorbing structures.