Regensburg 2025 – scientific programme

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CPP: Fachverband Chemische Physik und Polymerphysik

CPP 6: Gels, Polymers Networks and Elastomers II

CPP 6.4: Talk

Monday, March 17, 2025, 15:45–16:00, H34

Deformation and actuation of 3D-printed polymeric microstructures predicted by finite element simulations — •Santiago Gomez Melo and Ulrich Schwarz — Univesität Heidelberg, Heidelberg

Mechanical metamaterials with promising properties can be manufactured via 3D-printing of polymers. Computational modelling, in addition to aiding conceptualization and characterization, opens the gate towards computer rationalized material design. We present two projects to this end. First, we discuss the experimental investigation of 3D-printed tetrahedral polymeric microlattices with X-ray nanotomography. Step-wise loading and image processing allowed us to evaluate the evolution of the displacement fields. Finite element simulations were used to understand the strain accumulation around lattice defects. Second, we demonstrate that the thermomechanical response of printed nematic elastomer microstructures can be controlled via confinement in PDMS-scaffolds. We applied Landau-de Gennes theory combined with nonlinear morphoelasticity to predict the molecular orientation from the scaffold geometry and the actuation upon heating, in excellent agreement with experimental measurements of birefringence patterns.