cellular materials

After several years of research in the area of additive manufacturing, biofabrication, and additively manufactured biomaterials and implants, I finally put up the first version of the website of my lab. I will gradually improve the website, but there is already links to all publications coming out of my lab in the general area of AM.

As one of the most renewable resources on Earth, bamboo has recently attracted increasing interest for its promising applications in sustainable structural purposes. Its superior mechanical properties arising from the unique functionally-graded (FG) hierarchical structure also make bamboo an excellent candidate for bio-mimicking purposes in advanced material design. However, despite its well-documented, impressive mechanical characteristics, the intriguing asymmetry in flexural behavior of bamboo, alongside its underlying mechanisms, has not yet been fully understood.

Bamboo, as a natural hierarchical cellular material, exhibits remarkable mechanical properties including excellent flexibility and fracture toughness. As far as bamboo as a functionally graded bio-composite is concerned, the interactions of different constituents (bamboo fibers; parenchyma cells; and vessels.) alongside their corresponding interfacial areas with a developed crack should be of high significance.

Hi Everyone:

We wanted to make sure everyone knew about this symposium, tucked away under the nanotechnology category, for the fall 2013 MRS meeting. Abstracts are due soon. We expect a heavy mechanics component for this symposium.

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The expansion behavior of cellular materials is especially attractive for potential applications such as design and development of bio-inspired adaptive materials since most of biological materials have a cellular microstructure at least at one of their hierarchical levels. Wood, bone, bamboo, ice plant and honeybee combs are examples of such natural materials.