Architectured materials and mechanical metamaterials are an emerging and exciting class of materials with the promise of advantageous performance and multifunctional properties. These materials are characterized by specific and periodic structural features which are larger than what is typically considered a microstructural length scale (such as a grain size) but smaller than the size of the final component made of the architectured material. This class of materials includes but is not limited to lattice materials and cellular material systems, dense material systems composed of building blocks of well-defined size and shape.
We recently organized an International Union of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics (IUTAM) symposium dedicated to “Architectured Material Mechanics” in Chicago, IL (USA), Sept. 17–19, 2018. This event provided a review of the state of the art and a platform for discussions on the future of the science and engineering of architectured materials. It covered the mechanics, design, fabrication, and...
