Most manufactured things break when you subject them to 90% strain; however Professor Xiaoyu Rayne Zheng of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Virginia Tech has developed additively-manufactured metamaterials that completely recover from being deformed to this level.  Strains are usually defined as the change in length divided by the original length and is limited in most engineering structures to less than 2%, which is the level at which steel experiences permanent deformation.  Professor Zheng has developed a microstructure with a recurring architecture over seven orders of magnitude that allows an extraordinary level of elastic recovery; and then his team manufactures the material using microstereolithography.  Stereolithography is a form of three-dimensional printing.  Professor Zheng presented some of his research at the USAF research review that I attended last month [see ‘When an upgrade is downgrading‘ on August 21st, 2019 and ‘Coverts inspire adaptive wing design’ on September 11th, 2019].  He explained that, when these metamaterials are made out of a piezoelectric nanocomposite, they can be deployed as tactile sensors with directional sensitivity, or smart energy-absorbing materials.

Rayne Zheng and Aimy Wissa [‘Coverts inspire adaptive wing design’ on September 11th, 2019] both made Compelling Presentations [see post on March 21st, 2018] that captured my attention and imagination; and kept my phone in my pocket!

The picture is from https://www.raynexzheng.com/

For details of the additively-manufactured metamaterials see: Zheng, Xiaoyu, William Smith, Julie Jackson, Bryan Moran, Huachen Cui, Da Chen, Jianchao Ye et al. “Multiscale metallic metamaterials.” Nature materials 15, no. 10 (2016): 1100

For details of the piezoelectric metamaterials see: Cui, Huachen, Ryan Hensleigh, Desheng Yao, Deepam Maurya, Prashant Kumar, Min Gyu Kang, Shashank Priya, and Xiaoyu Rayne Zheng. “Three-dimensional printing of piezoelectric materials with designed anisotropy and directional response.” Nature materials 18, no. 3 (2019): 234