Extr3Me SIGNED

Project "Extr3Me" data sheet

The following table provides information about the project.

 Partnership

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 Project objective

Manipulating physical signals such as light, sound, heat or motion is a vital challenge in multiple areas of science. Due to recent advances in digital fabrication techniques, the last years have seen a revolution in artificial periodic composites with on-demand electromagnetic, acoustic, thermal and mechanical properties. These so-called metamaterials become particularly interesting in mechanics, where geometrical effects and nonlinearities are much stronger than in any other physical field. Over the past 5 years, the community -including myself- has discovered a plethora of “extreme” functionalities, e.g. mechanical metamaterials that are very light, stiff and strong at the same time, that have negative elastic moduli or that exhibit programmable shape-changes. Importantly, such advanced properties are typically designed through a purely geometrical framework. Yet, this impressive progress is so far confined to idealized settings, namely for homogeneous boundary conditions, imperfection-free structures and purely elastic constituents under quasi-static driving. This traditional focus severely limits our understanding of metamaterials and their potential for applications. Here, I propose to uncover the extreme mechanics of metamaterials under realistic conditions. Specifically, by generalizing the geometrical framework to allow for deviations from the ideal limit, and by validating it through a wide array of experimental and numerical techniques, I will establish: 1) the effect of inhomogeneous boundary conditions; 2) the sensitivity to geometric imperfections; 3) the role of dissipation. Just as the fundamental understanding of defects and dislocations revolutionized materials science, by exploring perturbations in metamaterials I will push the frontiers of solids mechanics and open up avenues for the design of robust advanced functionalities tailored to realistic complex scenarios, from prosthetics to aerospace.