Crystallographically-Architected Mechanical Metamaterials (CrystArMM)

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Mechanical metamaterials have been of widespread attraction in recent years as a result of their unusual, but often desirable, mechanical properties. Such properties are, in general, not found in natural materials, but are the results of their engineered internal structures. The vision for this research programme is to systematically utilize the well-established science of crystallography as a paradigm for the design and development of novel architected mechanical metamaterials which outperform existing conventional designs. In particular, this project will focus on zero or negative stiffness (ZNS) metamaterials which manifest single or multiple phases of zero or negative stiffness during their deformation process. Such metamaterials could have desirable structural properties such as reversible deformation to be used for recoverable impact resilience as well as extreme damping properties. The main aim of this project, entitled Crystallographically-Architected Mechanical Metamaterials (CrystArMM), is to develop a robust design methodology for the optimal design and performance evaluation of new ZNS metamaterials.The project will involve the systematic design and structural form-finding of novel mechanical metamaterials, followed by geometrical optimisation using efficient classic or metaheuristic methods. More specifically, it will lead to the development of a framework for the parametric design, crystallographic modification, structural behaviour evaluation, and optimisation of novel ZNS mechanical metamaterials which may also exhibit other unconventional properties such as negative Poisson's ratio. The novel designs will be virtually tested against a set of traditional ones in the space of alternatives to comparatively evaluate their simulated performance. Exploiting manufacturing technologies such as 3D printing or water-jet cutting, the newly-designed and optimised metamaterials will also be physically fabricated and tested for the purpose of validation of analytical and numerical simulations as well as against a reduced set of comparable conventional metamaterials to experimentally evaluate the comparative performance of proposed designs. The development of such a design framework will enable enriching the range of possible metamaterial designs on which scientists and engineers base their applied research. This project could facilitate the discovery of completely new ranges of metamaterials and metastructures with potential applications in various fields including sports engineering, impact engineering, vibration control, and soft robotics.