MIAE 2018 Summer Seminar 3

“Additive Manufacturing of Bio-inspired Structures via Nanocomposite 3D Printing ”

By Dr. Yong Chen, University of Southern California

Many natural structures out-perform the conventional synthetic counterparts due to the specially evolved multi-scale and multi-material architectures. However, the majority of current 3D printing systems are designed to fabricate parts using a single material in a single scale mainly for structural purpose. Such complex yet beautiful designs existing in natural structures are far beyond the fabrication capability of current 3D printing systems. This talk will report our recent work on developing new multi-scale and multi-material additive manufacturing processes to fabricate bio-inspired structures including (1) the Bouligand structure in natural creatures to create highly impact resistant architectures, and (2) the eggbeater structure of the Salvinia Molesta leaves to create superhydrophobic structures. After a brief overview of current 3D printing technology, an electrically assisted additive manufacturing (AM) approach to fabricate complex reinforcement architectures will be presented. The fabricated structures show three times enhanced impact resistance with Bouligand-type orientation compared with random orientation. Another additive manufacturing process named Immersed Surface Accumulation to fabricate complex micro-scale structures on an object surface will be presented. Such AM process enables one to reproduce biomimetic functional surfaces to achieve interesting properties such as hydrophobilicity and petal effect. Both AM processes are based on nanocomposite by mixing multi-walled Carbon Nanotubes with photocurable resins. Some promising applications enabled by the 3D-printed structures will also be demonstrated and discussed. The talk will conclude with remarks and thoughts on future 3D printing developments and potential opportunities for product designers and manufacturing engineers.

Dr. Yong Chen is an associate professor in the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering and Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering (courtesy) at the University of Southern California. He received his Ph.D. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology in 2001. Prior to joining USC in 2006, he was a senior Research and Development engineer in 3D Systems Inc, the pioneer in 3D Printing industry.

Location & Time

EV11.119 Concordia University

August 23rd , 2018 (Thursday)

11:00 AM – 12:00 PM