Momentum - The Magazine for Virginia Tech Mechanical Engineering Vol. 3 No. 3 Fall 2018 | Page 13

https://youtu.be/W-zfSGFqp3k
One of the differences between man-made
and natural cellular structures is the non-sym-
metrical formation of cellular struts and nodes
which also vary in thickness and orientation
gradually at different locations.
"By studying (sea urchins)
we hope to learn how to
input these natural designs
into our laboratory-created
materials"
“Most of our current 3-D printed materials
are based on idealized geometries such as cy-
lindrical beams with a constant cross-sectional
area, which may contribute to catastrophic
failure behavior in some printed ceramic
solids,” Li said. “Looking at sea urchins we see
curved morphologies in stark contrast to 3-D
printed structures. By studying these we hope to learn how to input these natural designs into
our laboratory-created materials."
Li said that this NSF award seeks to develop methods for acquiring, handling, processing, ex-
tracting and evaluating the computational data for a hierarchical structure in order to integrate
the information with 3-D data and testing, to develop engineered cellular materials.
MOMENTUM
FALL 2018
PAGE 13