Instant & Reversible Barriers through Granular Jamming
Abstract
For the proposed effort, MIT aims to establish the material mechanics and deposition processes necessary to enable construction of continuously pourable, jammed structures. Pouring granules normally exhibits jamming ability. But the resulting entities lack structural integrity and functional form. When a fiber is deposited among the grains, it instantly triggers jamming, likely by increasing the number of frictional contacts. The fiber also provides structural reinforcement by bearing tensile loads, while the grains themselves bear compressive loads, behaving in a manner analogous to tensegrity structures. With this granular jamming principal and phenomenon in mind, MIT proposed to research and develop a new method for quickly creating robust infrastructure in a reversible and reusable manner built from common materials, such as rocks and fiber. Compared to conventional walls, which require precise placement of building materials, the new technology will use far less manual labor and is completely reversible. Like concrete, these walls can be poured into complex shapes, but do not require long cure-times; instead, they solidify instantly and can be disassembled and reassembled elsewhere. Further, unlike conventional barriers that require substantial storage and transportation, jammed barriers can be rapidly poured with locally-found materials and require nearly no shipped or stored materials. It has the potential not only to transform construction technologies, but also enable completely new capabilities that are currently impossible. For instance, the project is envisaged to enable roadways or other infrastructure to be built and removed at a moment s notice such as helping vehicle navigate difficult terrain by instantly printing a road in front of it and then vacuuming the road back up behind it to prevent other vehicles from following behind. Successfully developed, this technology will offer numerous applications such as quickly establishing cover, erecting obstacles to control crowds, establishing temporary bases, and aiding in disaster relief or humanitarian assistance. Compared to concrete type structures, this technology is hopeful to dramatically decrease the time and manual labor needed for construction.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Jun 04, 2018
- Source ID
- HR00111810004
Entities
People
- Skylar Tibbits
Organizations
- Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology