Abstract

Most natural organisms show fascinating mechanical adaptability when interacting with their environments. Stiffness tuning in nature is used as a powerful tool to combine the load carrying functionality of rigid structures with compliance and adaptability. Human-made structures, however, do not possess this mechanical adaptability and are often designed to meet a specific load carrying requirement. This causes limitations in performance, efficiency and safety. Often to add other functionalities, additional components are needed, which increases the total weight and cost of the structures.

In this talk, I will present the latest research in our group on a variety of structures including multi-material cellular and multi-layered structures that employed active stiffness tuning based on thermoplastic softening. We use a combined experimental and numerical approach to investigate the electro-thermo-mechanical response of these structures. Understanding the main physical obstacles that limit the response time and the fundamental parameters controlling the stability and the failure under harsh electro-thermal loading will help us to better engineer the structures to meet the fast response and low power requirements. This new understanding will accelerate the technology readiness level of active structural control technology to be used in future multi-functional and smart structures. This technology has a wide range of application in robotics, morphing and deployable structures, active damping and active impact protection.