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Elephant-Skin-Inspired Porous Cementitious Tiles with Programmable Crack Networks for Passive Cooling
Qingya Huang1, Kun-Hao Yu1, Ji Yoon Bae2
1Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
Advanced Materials (Deerfield Beach, Fla.)
|April 20, 2026
Summary
This study introduces an elephant-skin-inspired design for building materials that efficiently captures and distributes water for passive evaporative cooling, significantly reducing energy demand and water waste.
Area of Science:
- Materials Science
- Building Science
- Sustainable Energy
Background:
- Passive evaporative cooling reduces building energy demand.
- Water wastage from inefficient distribution limits passive cooling effectiveness.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop a novel material architecture for efficient water management in passive evaporative cooling.
- To investigate the use of diatomaceous earth (DE)-cement composites with crack networks for water capture and routing.
Main Methods:
- Fabrication of DE-cement composites with elephant-skin-inspired crack networks.
- Characterization of water imbibition, redistribution, and retention properties.
- Infrared imaging to assess cooling performance.
- Testing in a mockup home model under simulated conditions.
Main Results:
- The crack network architecture enables ultrafast water imbibition (sub-50 ms) and capillary-driven redistribution.
- Optimized hexagonal crack lattices maximize water retention and delay drainage.
- Edge-dominated evaporation sustains prolonged cooling.
- DE-cement tiles maintained significantly lower temperatures compared to commercial stucco in a mockup home model.
Conclusions:
- The developed DE-cement composite with crack networks offers a water-efficient solution for passive evaporative cooling.
- This approach provides a simple, scalable method for enhancing building energy efficiency and thermal comfort.
- The geometry-tunable design allows for customized cooling performance.
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