GALCIT Colloquium

Compliance as a means for producing functionality has received significant research attention in a diversity of fields, for example to achieve jointless mechanisms or to control the properties of metamaterials. Nevertheless, in most engineering structures compliance is commonly associated to poor response and is generally avoided as a means to achieve functionality. The current design paradigm for structures overlooks the substantial opportunities offered by material systems and structures exhibiting tailored compliant behaviour at different geometrical scales. In particular, the utilization of large deformations arising from elastic instabilities enables the possibility for programming functionality into systems. Indeed in systems exhibiting inherent multi-stability, the switching between the available stable configurations allows to achieve local and fast adaptability of shape and stiffness which may be triggered by active control or passive response to environmental changes. The multi-scale arrangement of distributed compliance structures embedding multi-stable structures thus opens up exciting possibilities for creating hierarchical material systems and structures with inherently adaptable mechanical behaviour.

This talk will present examples in which compliance and elastic instabilities are designed to enhance and create novel behaviour and augmented functionalities. The presented concepts will be illustrated through applications including strongly nonlinear wave guiding, self-shaping micro-reinforced composites and aeroelastically driven morphing.