A team funded by MIT and Masdar Institute of Science and Technology utilized a material with two different types of malleability printed by a 3D-printer. By combining this material and complex computer simulations,the team was able to create a surface that has the ability to change its rigidity/sleekness by using both of the variables.
How this works is that a base layer (a matrix) of the more flexible polymer has embedded particles that are much more rigid than the base. When the matrix as a whole is squeezed, the surface changes in accordance with the patterns and placements of the rigid polymers. This ability permits surfaces to reversibly change because when the squeezing action ceases, the matrix returns to its initial form.
This process can be executed to adjust how surfaces reflects light and how other surfaces have the ability to change their aerodynamics. One of the primary uses that the team has for this process is to create a surface that can guide fluids across an area by the use of specific paths generated by the computer simulations.
MIT graduate students and a member of the team, Mark Guttag, mentions how the principles of adjusting the materials ability to change its texture can be the avant garde in branching out ideas in material sciences. This is due to the fact that the same principles can be applied to different cases and different stimuli to see how specified materials react to varying conditions.
Read more about this topic at: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/06/150611114415.htm
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