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Shape-Adaptive Metastructures with Variable Bandgap Regions by 4D Printing
Reza Noroozi1,2, Mahdi Bodaghi1, Hmaid Jafari2
1Department of Engineering, School of Science and Technology, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham NG11 8NS, UK.
Polymers
|March 4, 2020
Summary
Four-dimensional (4D) printing creates adaptive metastructures using self-bending elements to filter noise. Printing speed influences the metastructure
Area of Science:
- Metamaterials and Advanced Manufacturing
- Acoustic and Vibrational Engineering
- Polymer Science and Engineering
Background:
- Adaptive metastructures offer tunable filtering capabilities for vibrational and acoustic noise.
- Four-dimensional (4D) printing enables the creation of dynamic structures with responsive properties.
- Shape-memory polymers (SMPs) are key materials for developing self-actuating and shape-changing components.
Purpose of the Study:
- To engineer adaptive metastructures using 4D printing for tunable vibrational and acoustic noise filtering.
- To investigate the influence of 4D printing parameters, specifically print head speed, on self-bending characteristics.
- To develop and validate computational models for predicting the behavior of 4D-printed SMP elements.
Main Methods:
- Fabrication of temperature-responsive SMP elements with self-bending features using fused deposition modeling (FDM).
- Experimental analysis of shape recovery and self-bending behavior influenced by print speed.
- Development of a 3D constitutive model and finite element (FE) method for simulating self-bending.
- Implementation of prestrain modeling in commercial FE software for simulating material tailoring.
Main Results:
- Print head speed significantly affects the prestrain, shape recovery, and self-bending of 4D-printed SMP elements.
- Validated FE models accurately predict the self-bending behavior of printed beams.
- Adaptive metastructures demonstrate tunable bandgap properties for controlling wave propagation.
- Bandgap size and frequency range are directly linked to the geometry of self-bending elements, which is controlled by print speed.
Conclusions:
- 4D printing offers a pathway to engineer adaptive metastructures with controllable acoustic and vibrational filtering.
- The study demonstrates a method to tune bandgap properties by controlling the printing process.
- This research advances 4D printing technology for applications in acoustic and structural engineering, including filters and waveguides.

