A multi-scale approach is devoted to the analysis of hygro-elastic internal stresses in porous composite materials. Voids in composite materials are known to cause a significant reduction of mechanical properties. Moreover, in a humid environment they also affect the moisture absorption and the induced internal stresses. In this work, a self-consistent approach is used to estimate internal stre...

In this review, the preparation of porous copolymer resin (PCR) materials via suspension polymerization with variable properties are described by tuning the polymerization reaction, using solvents which act as porogens, to yield microporous, mesoporous, and macroporous materials. The porogenic properties of solvents are related to traditional solubility parameters which yield significant change...

In this study, we report a novel periodic material with negative Poisson's ratio (also called auxetic materials) fabricated by denting spherical dimples in an elastic flat sheet. While previously reported auxetic materials are either porous or comprise at least two phases, the material proposed here is non-porous and made of a homogeneous elastic sheet. Importantly, the auxetic behavior is indu...

1. Introduction Porous solids are in the focus of scientific research due to their importance in various applications such as catalysis, mass separation, pharmaceutics, and chromatography. To date, large variety of porous materials containing both micro-and mesopores have been synthesized. Such a rapid growth of various types of porous materials consisting of several structural units with diffe...

This work demonstrates the potential of porous BaTiO3 for piezoelectric sensor and energy-harvesting applications by manufacture of materials, detailed characterisation and application of new models. Ferroelectric macro-porous BaTiO3 ceramics for piezoelectric applications are manufactured for a range of relative densities, α = 0.30-0.95, using the burned out polymer spheres method. The piezoel...

Renewable, cost-effective and eco-friendly electrode materials have attracted much attention in the energy conversion and storage fields. Bagasse, the waste product from sugarcane that mainly contains cellulose derivatives, can be a promising candidate to manufacture supercapacitor electrode materials. This study demonstrates the fabrication and characterization of highly porous carbon aerogels...

Limp materials like textiles, leather, porous tissues, meat and fish fillets do represent challenges in automation. A universal gripping principle that is usable for all these materials is not known. This paper describes a new gripping principle based on a novel Coanda effect ejector meeting these challenges. This ejector allows the construction of a slim, plate-shaped vacuum gripper with multi...

A study has been made of Hertzian contact damage in compressive shear stress field beneath the contact area. The observed microcrack density increases with grain size, porous and dense liquid-phase-sintered aluminas. Indentation stress–strain curves show increasing nonlinearity as the implying a threshold microstructural scale for crack initiation. In contrast, the micromechanisms controlling f...