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The Next Generation of Smart Materials and 3D/4D Printing Technologies

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A special issue of Polymers (ISSN 2073-4360). This special issue belongs to the section "Polymer Processing and Engineering".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 June 2021) | Viewed by 27709

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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Mahdi Bodaghi

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Guest Editor

Department of Engineering, School of Science and Technology, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham NG11 8NS, UK
Interests: mechanics of biomaterials; smart materials and structures; meta-materials; soft matters; regenerative medicine; 3D and 4D printing technologies
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Prof. Dr. Frédéric Demoly

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Guest Editor

ICB UMR 6303 CNRS, Univ. Bourgogne Franche-Comté, Belfort-Montbéliard University of Technology, 90010 Belfort, France
Interests: design for 3D/4D printing; multi-material additive manufacturing; smart materials; voxel-based modeling; 4D printing knowledge formalization; artificial intelligence-based design
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Under the umbrella of smart materials, advanced composites, functionally graded materials, shape memory materials, multi-phase materials, and biomaterials, to name a few, play a crucial and promising role in applications such as conductors, actuators, sensors, MEMS, drug delivery, chemicals detection, power generation and storage, and self-assembly. Over the last four decades, three-dimensional (3D) printing technology has opened a broad spectrum of research interests and, more importantly, has led to a tremendous breakthrough in academia and industry regarding the fabrication of complex shapes and structures with multimaterials. Based on this success, a booming research field has been emerged over the last six years in the development of dynamic or alive structures, leading to the paradigm of 4D printing, which enables the tailored manufacturing of smart materials and structures that can actively respond to external stimuli like temperature, light, humidity, and pH.

The objective of this Special Issue is to promote the dissemination of significant developments dealing with smart materials, composite structures, and 3D/4D printing technologies. This Special Issue creates a forum for research contributions covering a broad spectrum of topics, ranging from computational and experimental investigations to hybrid techniques that combine numerical and experimental approaches in the research and development of advanced smart materials and additive manufacturing technologies. All researchers/investigators are invited to contribute to this Special Issue with their original research articles.

Dr. Mahdi Bodaghi
Dr. Frédéric Demoly
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Polymers is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

Composite materials
Bio-inspired designs
Smart materials design from nano to meso/macro scales
Reversible and repeatable smart materials
Additive manufacturing techniques for stimulus-reactive materials deposition
Multi-scale design and modelling methods of/with smart materials
Application of 4D printing technologies to industrial cases

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

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19 pages, 6539 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Functional Investigation on Automotive Interior Materials Based on Variable Knitted Structural Parameters

by Mao Siyao, Su Liu, Zhang Peihua and Long Hairu

Polymers 2020, 12(11), 2455; https://doi.org/10.3390/polym12112455 - 23 Oct 2020

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 3666

Abstract

With the rapid development of technical textiles, more and more researchers have focused on developing high performance textiles to meet various needs. The automotive industry is a major market for technical textiles. Compared to other types of fabric, weft-knitted fabric has good extensibility and elasticity, as well as a hand-feel, and it is gradually becoming the preferred type of interior fabric for automobiles. This paper aims to develop an automotive fabric with good comfort and durability. Sixteen types of weft-knitted fabrics with eight different structures and two different materials (draw textured polyester and textured polyamide yarn) were fabricated using a computerized flat knitting machine. Their durability and level of comfort were examined by measuring the tensile and tear strengths, abrasion resistance and air permeability. A fuzzy comprehensive evaluation method was employed to compare the comprehensive properties of the fabric. The results indicated that the overall performance of DTPA fabric was better than DTPE fabric, and an optimum structure was selected for an automotive interior. Meanwhile, we found that the air permeability of the fabric could be increased by using tuck stitches and that the strength and dimensional stability of fabric could be increased by adding tuck stitches and weft-insert yarns. The findings contribute to the field of technical textiles and provide ideas for the development of high-performance textiles. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Next Generation of Smart Materials and 3D/4D Printing Technologies)

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18 pages, 7023 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Post-Processing of FDM 3D-Printed Polylactic Acid Parts by Laser Beam Cutting

by Mahmoud Moradi, Mojtaba Karami Moghadam, Mahmoud Shamsborhan, Mahdi Bodaghi and Hamid Falavandi

Polymers 2020, 12(3), 550; https://doi.org/10.3390/polym12030550 - 03 Mar 2020

Cited by 52 | Viewed by 6503

Abstract

In this paper, the post-processing of 3D-printed poly lactic acid (PLA) parts is investigated. Workpieces are manufactured by fused deposition modeling (FDM) 3D printing, while they may have defects in some areas such as edges. A post-processing is introduced here for 3D-printed samples by low power CO₂ laser. The thickness of the FDM samples are 3.2 mm and printed by optimum conditions. Effects of process parameters such as focal plane position (−3.2–3.2 mm), laser power (20–40 W), and laser cutting speed (1–13 mm/s) are examined based on the design of experiments (DOE). Geometrical features of the kerf; top and bottom kerf; taper; ratio of top to the bottom kerf are considered as output responses. An analysis of the experimental results by statistical software is conducted to survey the effects of process parameters and to obtain regression equations. By optimizing of the laser cutting process; an appropriate kerf quality is obtained and also optimum input parameters are suggested. Experimental verification tests show a good agreement between empirical results and statistical predictions. The best optimum sample with 1.19 mm/s cutting speed, 36.49 W power and 0.53 mm focal plane position shows excellent physical features after the laser cutting process when 276.9 μm top and 261.5 μm bottom kerf width is cut by laser. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Next Generation of Smart Materials and 3D/4D Printing Technologies)

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18 pages, 8453 KiB

Open AccessArticle

3D Printing On-Water Sports Boards with Bio-Inspired Core Designs

by Aref Soltani, Reza Noroozi, Mahdi Bodaghi, Ali Zolfagharian and Reza Hedayati

Polymers 2020, 12(1), 250; https://doi.org/10.3390/polym12010250 - 20 Jan 2020

Cited by 36 | Viewed by 8508

Abstract

Modeling and analyzing the sports equipment for injury prevention, reduction in cost, and performance enhancement have gained considerable attention in the sports engineering community. In this regard, the structure study of on-water sports board (surfboard, kiteboard, and skimboard) is vital due to its close relation with environmental and human health as well as performance and safety of the board. The aim of this paper is to advance the on-water sports board through various bio-inspired core structure designs such as honeycomb, spiderweb, pinecone, and carbon atom configuration fabricated by three-dimensional (3D) printing technology. Fused deposition modeling was employed to fabricate complex structures from polylactic acid (PLA) materials. A 3D-printed sample board with a uniform honeycomb structure was designed, 3D printed, and tested under three-point bending conditions. A geometrically linear analytical method was developed for the honeycomb core structure using the energy method and considering the equivalent section for honeycombs. A geometrically non-linear finite element method based on the ABAQUS software was also employed to simulate the boards with various core designs. Experiments were conducted to verify the analytical and numerical results. After validation, various patterns were simulated, and it was found that bio-inspired functionally graded honeycomb structure had the best bending performance. Due to the absence of similar designs and results in the literature, this paper is expected to advance the state of the art of on-water sports boards and provide designers with structures that could enhance the performance of sports equipment. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Next Generation of Smart Materials and 3D/4D Printing Technologies)

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Graphical abstract

Review

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31 pages, 3834 KiB

Open AccessReview

Extending Cellulose-Based Polymers Application in Additive Manufacturing Technology: A Review of Recent Approaches

by Denesh Mohan, Zee Khai Teong, Afifah Nabilah Bakir, Mohd Shaiful Sajab and Hatika Kaco

Polymers 2020, 12(9), 1876; https://doi.org/10.3390/polym12091876 - 20 Aug 2020

Cited by 43 | Viewed by 7556

Abstract

The materials for additive manufacturing (AM) technology have grown substantially over the last few years to fulfill industrial needs. Despite that, the use of bio-based composites for improved mechanical properties and biodegradation is still not fully explored. This limits the universal expansion of AM-fabricated products due to the incompatibility of the products made from petroleum-derived resources. The development of naturally-derived polymers for AM materials is promising with the increasing number of studies in recent years owing to their biodegradation and biocompatibility. Cellulose is the most abundant biopolymer that possesses many favorable properties to be incorporated into AM materials, which have been continuously focused on in recent years. This critical review discusses the development of AM technologies and materials, cellulose-based polymers, cellulose-based three-dimensional (3D) printing filaments, liquid deposition modeling of cellulose, and four-dimensional (4D) printing of cellulose-based materials. Cellulose-based AM material applications and the limitations with future developments are also reviewed. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Next Generation of Smart Materials and 3D/4D Printing Technologies)

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