What if materials could do more than simply bend and spring back? Dissipative metamaterials combine carefully engineered geometries with mechanisms that absorb and dissipate energy, opening new possibilities for mechanical functionality.
While traditional mechanical metamaterials are largely designed around elasticity, we explore the role of viscoelastic damping, plastic deformation and superelasticity. Through fabrication, mechanical experiments and numerical simulations, we investigate how these mechanisms can be harnessed to design materials with unusual and useful responses.
Rather than treating energy loss and permanent deformation as unwanted effects, we investigate how they can enable new functionalities, from vibration damping to controlled deformation and impact absorption.
See the mechanics in action
Our experimental specimens are produced using techniques such as additive manufacturing and casting, then tested to understand their mechanical response. The demonstrations below offer a closer look at how these structures deform.
From fundamental physics to impact protection
In recent work, we showed how combining plastic deformation with controlled buckling can produce metamaterials that deform sequentially while maintaining their load-bearing capacity. This approach enables efficient, reusable shock-absorbing structures.
FEATURED PUBLICATION · NATURE 2024 Harnessing plasticity in sequential metamaterials for ideal shock absorption Wenfeng Liu, Shahram Janbaz, David Dykstra, Bernard Ennis & Corentin Coulais Explore the publication ↗More research demonstrations
Explore additional examples of mechanical metamaterials and their dynamic behaviour.
Supervisor: Corentin Coulais
Research team: Shahram Janbaz, Wenfeng Liu, David Dykstra
Interested in this research? Contact Corentin Coulais ↗