Conception

Thanks to conception ideas (here from bioinspiration) and to the understanding of which mechanisms should be activated depending on the specifications, tailored architectured materials can be conceived.

This part of my research project can be seen as proofs-of-concept that would still need optimization.

Current research

Layered architectured materials inspired by the structure of cork have been produced through a collaboration with Dr. Yanyu Chen for University of Louisville. Instead of cell walls being made of a single material, they presented layered cell walls, alternating soft and hard polymeric phases.

The mechanical testing in quasi-static of these layered architectured structures showed a transition from fragile material to a more damage tolerant one and thus enhanced energie absorption properties [1].

References

[1] Huan Jiang, Louise Le Barbenchon, Brett A. Bednarcyk, Fabrizio Scarpa, Yanyu Chen, Bioinspired multilayered cellular composites with enhanced energy absorption and shape recovery, Additive Manufacturing, Volume 36, 2020, 101430, ISSN 2214-8604, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.addma.2020.101430.