Putting the “S” into mechanics - Professor Keith Seffen

Name: Putting the “S” into mechanics - Professor Keith Seffen
Start: 2025-11-10T18:00:00+00:00
End: 2025-11-10T19:00:00+00:00
Location: Bristol Myers-Squibb lecture theatre

Schedule

Mon Nov 10 2025 at 06:00 pm to 07:00 pm

UTC+00:00

Location

Bristol Myers-Squibb lecture theatre | Cambridge, EN

The structural mechanics of shape-changing structures: from bending armadillos, self-deploying satellites, to roll-up displays.
Most structures, e.g. buildings & bridges, are designed to be near rigid when loaded: in view of high winds or heavy traffic, their movements are barely noticeable. Formally, they are stiff, strong and stable, in terms of their “structural mechanics” – the study of their loaded deformation. Large movements from material weakness, overloading, or bad design, typically portend failure & eventual collapse. Embracing large movements, i.e. deliberate changes in shape, can admit new behaviour if safe and reversible, to yield transformer-like technologies and simple explanations of biological morphology, for example. In this talk, I will describe several structural mechanics principles for making shape-changing structures, out of ordinary materials, complete with physical demonstrations.