Eran Sharon (Hebrew University of Jerusalem) | Self-Morphing of frustrated sheets – from the lab to the real world and from statics to locomotion |

Abstract:

Humanity spends huge amounts of time, energy and resources in the shaping of solids into desired three-dimensional shapes. Unlike (nearly) all manmade structures, which are shaped by external constraints, most natural structures shape themselves via the distribution of non-uniform active growth. Apparently, this mode of shaping can be implemented with synthetic solid structures. Solids are not necessarily passive, they can be “programmed” to shape themselves upon induction.

I will briefly present the principles and status of the field of “Self-Morphing”. Then I will focus on two different projects. In the first we attempt to “export” self-morphing from the scientific community and lab scale, to the real world of architecture and design.

In the second project we study the locomotion of active gel sheets on a curved fluid interface. The sheets metabolize chemical energy (“food”) from their surroundings and convert it into periodic change of their curvature and to their periodic motion along the fluid interface. We suggest that the difference between the curvature of the sheet and that of the substrate leads to forces and torques on the sheet and to its locomotion. This mechanism is likely to be relevant to the motion of cells on curved surfaces (curvotaxis)

When: March 22, 2023 2:00 PM (Israel Standard Time).

Where: Room 223, Multipurpose Bldg. & over Zoom