# Material Inspired by Chain Mail Transforms from Flexible to Rigid on Command

**Source**: https://aph.caltech.edu/news/material-inspired-by-chain-mail-transforms-from-flexible-to-rigid-on-command-1
**Parent**: https://aph.caltech.edu/people/daraio

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Material Inspired by Chain Mail Transforms from Flexible to Rigid on Command

# Material Inspired by Chain Mail Transforms from Flexible to Rigid on Command

August 12, 2021

Engineers at Caltech and JPL have developed a material inspired by chain mail that can transform from a foldable, fluid-like state into specific solid shapes under pressure. "We wanted to make materials that can change stiffness on command," says [Chiara Daraio](https://eas.caltech.edu/people/daraio), G. Bradford Jones Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Physics. "We'd like to create a fabric that goes from soft and foldable to rigid and load-bearing in a controllable way." To explore what materials would work best, Daraio, together with former Caltech postdoctoral researcher [Yifan Wang](https://sg.linkedin.com/in/yifan-wang-b9805794) and former Caltech graduate student [Liuchi Li](https://www.linkedin.com/in/liuchi-li-493930a0) (PhD '19) as co-lead authors of the [Nature paper](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-03698-7), designed a number of configurations of linked particles, from linking rings to linking cubes to linking octahedrons (which resemble two pyramids connected at the base). The materials were 3-D printed out of polymers and even metals, with help from [Douglas Hofmann](https://www.linkedin.com/in/douglas-hofmann-8977988), principal scientist at JPL, which Caltech manages for NASA. These configurations were then simulated in a computer with a model from the group of [José E. Andrade](https://eas.caltech.edu/people/jandrade), the George W. Housner Professor of Civil and Mechanical Engineering and Caltech's resident expert in the modeling of granular materials. [[Caltech story](https://www.caltech.edu/about/news/material-inspired-by-chain-mail-transforms-from-flexible-to-rigid-on-command)]

Written by

Briana Ticehurst

Professor Chiara Daraio

Liuchi Li

Yifan Wang

Professor José E. Andrade

Douglas Hofmann

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