It is known that a structure should resist loads without failure. For structures that contain humans, i.e. houses, boats, cars, aircraft etc., they do not stretch (or deform) a great deal and those that are required to move around should be lightweight to keep fuel costs down e.g. aircrafts and super-lightweight to overcome gravity (e.g. rockets, spacecraft).
This seminar explores the possibility of using unusual properties of materials with some additional nonlinear geometric behavior to either reduce mass or to achieve a significant shape change (morphing) of a structure. Examples are drawn from aircrafts, helicopters, wind turbine blades, cars and from nature.
