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Hierarchical Materials Mechanics
Nature provides awe-inspiring lessons in designing materials structures from simple building blocks to achieve necessary performance. A ubiquitous theme is the establishment of structures that have unique mechanical responses at different length scales, ranging from nanometers to centimeters. Here, we present an overview of our group’s efforts to learn from Nature within the guiding light of scalability for synthetic materials design. First, we will describe how elastic instabilities in elastomers, such as wrinkling and folding, can be used systematically to define surface structures with discretized length scales. Taking advantage of this "synthetic morphogenesis," we develop materials for a range of advanced technologies, as well as provide lessons that impact the understanding of biological materials processes. Second, we highlight new efforts to assemble tailored nanoparticles into materials structures that possess unique properties on both sub-10nm as well as multi-centimeter length scales. Overall, these stories will provide insight into how we think as a group and learn from Nature, without losing focus on the importance of fundamental materials principles and engineering design.
Séminaires du laboratoire de Physique et mécanique des milieux hétérogènes : consulter le programme