Eduard Karpov, University of Illinois at Chicago

Simon Guest, University of Cambridge

Ahmad Rafsanjani Abbasi, Harvard University

The purpose of this symposium to is highlight recent advances in mechanical metamaterials, engineered structural composites and material systems with dramatically enhanced mechanical properties, or properties inexistent in natural materials. Examples include negative elastic moduli, negative compressibility, negative thermal expansion, reverse Saint-Venant effect, surface localization of vibration and deformation energy, acoustic and mechanical rectifiers and by-passers. These properties are obtained via smart geometric arrangements of material’s constitutive elements, rather than their composition. The symposium covers all aspects of mechanical metamaterials research with an emphasis on:

1) Understanding basic physical phenomena that determine metamaterials functionality, such as Bragg’s scattering, internal resonance, anomalous Fourier mode behavior, and multistability transitions

2) Understanding the role of structural hierarchy

3) Phase diagrams, phase transitions maps and other panoramic descriptive approaches of materials properties investigation

4) Design approaches and novel manufacturing methods, in particular, 3D and 4D printing

5) Numerical modelling, including multiscale methods and approaches suitable for modelling essentially non-linear, highly concave and multistable material systems

Keywords: material systems , solids and structure