Can the way a woven lattice tears become a design choice? MIT researchers describe a tool for designing how a lattice changes shape as it stretches, how its fibers entangle and knot, and how it tears at its limit.
The subject is a class of 3D-woven metamaterials: materials whose properties depend primarily on internal microstructure rather than chemical composition. Their building blocks contain intertwined fibers that self-contact and entangle.
Represent placement and connectivity as a graph
The algorithm first represents the metamaterial as a graph. Graph attributes determine where each fiber is placed and how it connects to the others. Woven unit cells form the fundamental building blocks. Design parameters include the radius and pitch of the fibers that make up the woven struts.
Varying these parameters across the structure allows the unit cells to be functionally graded. The framework can tailor one region to be softer and another to be stiffer, or make the structure change shape as it stretches.
Include contact and entanglement in the simulation
The simulation framework predicts deformation response while capturing self-contact within fibers and entanglement. It also supports designing for predicted deformation or tearing patterns and resistance to them. Using the simulations, the team fabricated spatially varying geometries and experimented on them at the microscale.
Turn a manual design task into a reusable tool
The researchers say complex 3D lattices had previously been designed manually, limiting the number of designs tested. They described how woven lattices work and used that description to create a design tool for arbitrary woven lattices. The work demonstrates control and prediction of deformation and failure through geometric tuning, and introduces new building blocks that expand the property space of woven metamaterials.
The released open-source code lets users create designs to fit specifications and generate files for 3D printing or simulation.
Keep the applications in their reported scope
MIT lists possible uses including sensors that move with skin, aerospace or defense fabrics, flexible electronics, and printable textiles. These are proposed applications.
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