Multimaterial Lattice Structures With Thermally Programmable Mechanical Behaviors

摘要

Traditional lattice structures usually maintain their mechanical properties throughout their lifetime. Designing and manufacturing intelligent materials with environmental adaptability, programmable sense and responses to external changes (such as light, pressure, solution, temperature, electromagnetic field and electrochemical reaction), shape transformation, mode conversion and performance regulation in space and time, are still important scientific challenges in the field of artificial materials. In this paper, multimaterial lattice structures with thermally programmable mechanical responses were proposed by means of polymer materials with disparate glass transition temperatures and temperature dependencies, and through reasonable design of the spatial distribution of the materials. By theoretical analysis combined with finite element simulation, the effects of the relative stiffnesses of constitute materials on Poisson’s ratios, deformation modes and structural stability of the multimaterial lattice structures, were studied. The elastic constants, crushing responses and structural stability of multimaterial lattice structures were regulated by temperature control, consequently the multimaterial lattice structures were endowed with giant thermal deformation, hyperelasticity and shape memory effects. This paper opens up new avenues for the design and manufacture of adaptive protection equipment, biomedical devices, aerospace morphing structures, flexible electronic devices, self-assembly structures and reconfigurable soft robots.