Colloquium-Physics Department - Karen Daniels (NC State University)

About this event

The disordered design space for metamaterials

The development of additive manufacturing has made it possible to print open-lattice metamaterials with controlled amounts of disorder, through the algorithmic design of spatial patterns, the topology of the network of connections, and the variable thickness of beams. Using a variety of protocols, we generate two-dimensional and three-dimensional weighted network configurations and print them from polymeric or metallic feedstock. Through experiments, modeling, and network science, we examine how disordered materials can provide a new design space for bulk material properties such as acoustic band gaps, rigidity, thermal transport, and electrical resistance. Intriguingly, we observe that the choice of algorithm is itself a strong control on not only the the bulk properties, but also whether or not the system exhibits a strong dependence on the degree of disorder.

Biography Karen Daniels is a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at NC State University. Her lab investigates a number of problems in granular materials, fluids, gels, and disordered metamaterials, often tightly coupled with theoretical approaches. When not working with her students on experiments in the lab, she likes to spend time in the outdoors, which has led her to contemplate the implications of her research for the natural world. She has spent sabbaticals at the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization in Göttingen, Germany (supported by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation) and at the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore (supported by a Fulbright-Nehru Fellowship for Research and Education). She is a fellow of the American Physical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. She has previously served as Chair of the American Physical Society Division of Soft Matter, and currently serves as an Associate Editor for the Annual Reviews of Condensed Matter Physics.