Cellular and Composite Structures

Cellular and composite structures are engineered materials whose internal architecture—arrays of pores, lattices, or repeating geometric units—is deliberately designed to control mechanical behavior in ways solid materials cannot achieve. Metal foams, auxetic structures that grow wider when stretched, and additively manufactured lattices all fall within this space, where researchers study how geometry at small scales governs stiffness, energy absorption, and failure at the component level. A central challenge is closing the gap between what sophisticated manufacturing techniques like 3D printing can now produce and what designers can reliably predict and optimize, particularly for safety-critical uses such as load-bearing bone implants where porosity must simultaneously serve structural and biological functions. Active work is pushing toward structures that respond adaptively to loading conditions and toward better models that connect manufacturing variability to real-world performance.

Works

41,737

Total citations

831,658

Keywords

Cellular MetalsMetal FoamsMechanical MetamaterialsAdditive ManufacturingPorous MetalsAuxetic Materials