MEAM Seminar: “Impulse-Induced Dynamic Transitions in Flexible Mechanical Metamaterials: Harnessing Nonlinear Wave Dynamics for Advanced Engineering Applications”

Mechanical metamaterials are artificially designed structures that offer unique properties like negative Poisson’s ratio, tunable stiffness, and advanced thermal characteristics. While the static properties of mechanical metamaterials have been widely studied, their nonlinear dynamics stemming from the structural and geometric designs remain largely unexplored, which could pave ways for innovative design and optimization for novel applications related to deployable structures, reconfigurable robots, etc.. is to expand the fundamental understanding of flexible mechanical metamaterials and their potentials in solving engineering challenges through the combination of analytical, numerical, and experimental investigation. This seminar shows current findings on nonlinear dynamical behaviors, including soliton collisions leading to phase transitions, the preservation and disruption of topological modes under nonlinear loadings, and the application of flexible principles in designing efficient robotic systems with enhanced motion control capabilities.