Towards functional shells using architectured inflatable materials

The opportunities offered by shape morphing materials have recently been of great interests in the fields of soft robotics, biomedical engineering, and architectural design. In particular, inflatable materials can be programmed to reach specific shapes after actuation by carefully designing their overall channel geometry. This allows for meta-materials that are light-weight, easily deployed, and highly reusable with a straightforward actuation method.

Nonetheless, buckling and kink instabilities are commonly observed when inflatable materials are used, reducing the possibilities for large scale applications. We thus present here preliminary results on the mechanical characterization of inflated shells fabricated by welding two fabric sheets. We aim at reducing instabilities and maximizing shell stiffness through channel geometry optimization and mechanical reinforcement of the structure. We discuss as well the consequences of such modifications on the shape morphing inverse problem. Such methods could be used in civil engineering to design functional shells with a low environmental cost associated.