Multistable Architected Materials for Trapping Elastic Strain Energy

Sicong Shan; Sung H Kang; Jordan R Raney; Pai Wang; Lichen Fang; Francisco Candido; Jennifer A Lewis; Katia Bertoldi

doi:10.1002/adma.201501708

Multistable Architected Materials for Trapping Elastic Strain Energy

Adv Mater. 2015 Aug 5;27(29):4296-301. doi: 10.1002/adma.201501708. Epub 2015 Jun 18.

Authors

Sicong Shan¹, Sung H Kang^{1

2}, Jordan R Raney^{1

3}, Pai Wang¹, Lichen Fang¹, Francisco Candido¹, Jennifer A Lewis^{1

2}, Katia Bertoldi^{1

4}

Affiliations

¹ School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, 02138, USA.
² Department of Mechanical Engineering and Hopkins Extreme Materials Institute, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, 21218, USA.
³ Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, 02138, USA.
⁴ Kavli Institute for Bionano Science and Technology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, 02138, USA.

PMID: 26088462
DOI: 10.1002/adma.201501708

Abstract

3D printing and numerical analysis are combined to design a new class of architected materials that contain bistable beam elements and exhibit controlled trapping of elastic energy. The proposed energy-absorbing structures are reusable. Moreover, the mechanism of energy absorption stems solely from the structural geometry of the printed beam elements, and is therefore both material- and loading-rate independent.

Keywords: 3D printing; architected materials; energy trapping; multistability; reversibility.