Mixed Matters

Figure 3: Prototypes. Top left (A): 3D printed shell structure with varying local thickness. Surface manipulation
is created by inputting (u,v) coordinates of NURBS surface into CPPN and using output to define
extrusion of control points. Top right (B): Multi-material prototype using a Makerbot printer. Bottom left
(C): Shell structures can be easily subjected to FEA using the open-source solver CalculiX. Bottom right (D):
Evolved surface textures to increase shell stiffness.
Figure 4: Microstructure. NURBS surfaces can be extruded along their normal and complex internal lattices
and can be included and optimised to aid performance.
completely new design opportunities, enable us to create high-performance
designs with complex multi-material features, and allow us to discover higher-level
material behaviours (such as novel compliant mechanisms and morphable
structures). This work is ongoing.
47 Encoding Multi-Materiality