Innovative Building Materials Shaping the Future of Architecture

3. Wave Benders

Researchers at the University of Missouri have developed a new way to control elastic waves—which can travel through materials without altering their composition—that could protect structures from seismic events. The team developed and engraved a geometric microstructure pattern into a steel plate to bend or refract elastic and acoustic waves away from a target. “By redirecting the shock waves carrying massive energy around the important infrastructures or residential buildings through a metamaterial cloak, civilian lives and common properties can be saved from catastrophic earthquakes or tsunamis,” says Guoliang Huang, an associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering. The team chose steel for its ubiquity, but Huang says other metals and plastics can be engineered to have similar functionality

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