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Additively Manufactured Dual-Faced Structured Fabric for Shape-Adaptive Protection

by

1 HP-NTU Digital Manufacturing Corporate Lab, Nanyang Technological University, 50 Nanyang Avenue, Singapore, 639798, Singapore
2 Singapore Centre for 3D Printing, School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 50 Nanyang Avenue, Singapore, 639798, Singapore

* Corresponding Author: Kun Zhou. Email:

The International Conference on Computational & Experimental Engineering and Sciences 2024, 32(2), 1-1. https://doi.org/10.32604/icces.2024.013372

Abstract

Fabric-based materials have demonstrated promise for high-performance wearable applications but are currently restricted by their deficient mechanical properties. Here, we leverage the design freedom offered by additive manufacturing and a novel interlocking pattern to for the first time fabricate a dual-faced chain mail structure consisting of three-dimensional re-entrant unit cells. The flexible structured fabric demonstrates high specific energy absorption and specific strength of up to 1530 J/kg and 5900 N·m/kg, respectively, together with an excellent recovery ratio of ~80%, thereby overcoming the strength–recoverability trade-off. The designed dual-faced structured fabric compares favorably against a wide range of materials proposed for wearable applications, attributed to the synergetic strengthening of the energy-absorbing re-entrant unit cells and their unique topological interlocking. This work advocates the combined design of energy-absorbing unit cells and their interlocking to extend the application prospects of fabric-based materials to shape-adaptive protection.

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Keywords

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