Description du projet
Une nouvelle classe de métamatériaux mécaniques bio-inspirés
Le projet BOHEME, financé par l’UE, se penche sur le développement technologique d’une nouvelle classe de métamatériaux mécaniques bio-inspirés: des matériaux conçus artificiellement et dotés de propriétés exotiques supplémentaires que l’on ne trouve pas dans la nature. S’appuyant sur des recherches menées dans diverses disciplines (de la biologie et des mathématiques au génie océanique et à la science des matériaux), il prend pour hypothèse que le principe à l’œuvre dans les métamatériaux est déjà exploité dans la nature et que, grâce à l’évolution, il a permis d’optimiser les conceptions en matière d’amortissement des chocs. BOHEME adoptera une approche disruptive pour des applications à diverses échelles de longueur d’onde, allant des essais non destructifs à la réduction du bruit, en passant par le contrôle des vibrations à basse fréquence (y compris sismiques), la protection des côtes ou la récupération de l’énergie des vagues.
Objectif
BOHEME’s ambitious goal is to design and realize a new class of bioinspired mechanical metamaterials for novel applicative tools in diverse technological fields. Metamaterials exhibit exotic vibrational properties currently unavailable in Nature, and numerous important applications are emerging. However, universally valid design criteria are currently lacking, and their effectiveness is presently restricted to limited frequency ranges.
BOHEME starts from an innovative assumption, increasingly supported by experimental evidence, that the working principle behind metamaterials is already exploited in Nature, and that through evolution, this has given rise to optimized designs for impact damping. The “fundamental science” part of the project aims to explore biological structural materials for evidence of this, to investigate novel optimized bioinspired designs (e.g. porous hierarchical structures spanning various length scales) using state-of-the-art analytical and numerical approaches, to design and manufacture vibrationally effective structures, and to experimentally verify their performance over wide frequency ranges.
Through this disruptive approach, BOHEME will provide a pipeline to the technological development of a new class of bioinspired metamaterials in innovative applicative sectors over various wavelength scales, from non-destructive testing, to noise reduction, to low-frequency vibration control (including seismic), to coastal protection or energy harvesting from ocean waves. Industrial partners will provide know-how for proof of principle experiments and possible prototypes. The project is ambitious and inherently multidisciplinary, involving research in biology, mathematics, physics, materials science, structural and ocean engineering, drawing from scientific excellence of the partners. It involves theoretical, numerical and experimental aspects, and is a high-impact endeavour, from which basic science, EU industry and society can benefit.
Champ scientifique
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RIA - Research and Innovation actionCoordinateur
38122 Trento
Italie