Weird science: New 3D material could herald shape-shifting buildings (VIDEO)
Foldable material can change size, volume and shape
Researchers design a tunable, self actuated 3-D material
Date: March 11, 2016
Source: Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
Summary:
A new type of foldable material has been designed that is versatile, tunable and self actuated. It can change size, volume and shape; it can fold flat to withstand the weight of an elephant without breaking, and pop right back up to prepare for the next task.
Harvard researchers have designed a new type of foldable material that is versatile, tunable and self actuated. Here a single cell is folds according to its actuation.
Imagine a house that could fit in a backpack or a wall that could become a window with the flick of a switch.
Harvard researchers have designed a new type of foldable material that is versatile, tunable and self actuated. It can change size, volume and shape; it can fold flat to withstand the weight of an elephant without breaking, and pop right back up to prepare for the next task.
The research was lead by Katia Bertoldi, the John L. Loeb Associate Professor of the Natural Sciences at the John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), James Weaver, Senior Research Scientist at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University and Chuck Hoberman, of the Graduate School of Design. It is described in Nature Communications.
"We've designed a three-dimensional, thin-walled structure that can be used to make foldable and reprogrammable objects of arbitrary architecture, whose shape, volume and stiffness can be dramatically altered and continuously tuned and controlled," said Johannes T. B. Overvelde, graduate student in Bertoldi's lab and first author of the paper.
The structure is inspired by an origami technique called snapology, and is made from extruded cubes with 24 faces and 36 edges. Like origami, the cube can be folded along its edges to change shape. The team demonstrated, both theoretically and experimentally, that the cube can be deformed into many different shapes by folding certain edges, which act like hinges. The team embedded pneumatic actuators into the structure, which can be programmed to deform specific hinges, changing the cube's shape and size, and removing the need for external input.
More: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/03/160311083911.htm
Last edited by Carol on Sat Mar 12, 2016 8:28 pm; edited 1 time in total