Science Daily August 12, 2021
Structured fabrics, such as woven sheets or chain mail armours, design can target desirable characteristics, such as high impact resistance, thermal regulation, or electrical conductivity. However, the properties are usually fixed. An international team of researchers (Singapore, USA – Caltech) has developed new chain fabric that is flexible like cloth but can stiffen on demand. It comprises hollow octahedrons that interlock with each other. Increase in bending resistance arises because the interlocking particles have high tensile resistance. They found that chain mails, consisting of different non-convex granular particles, undergo a jamming phase transition that is described by a characteristic power-law function. The research can lead to lightweight, tunable, and adaptive fabrics, with potential applications in wearable exoskeletons, haptic architectures, and reconfigurable medical supports…read more. TECHNICAL ARTICLE
Bending and tensile tests with variable confining pressure. Credit: Nature volume 596, pages238–243 (2021)Â