Interlocking Structures

Speaker
Alexei Kanel-Belov, Bar-Ilan University
Date
10/06/2018 - 12:00 - 11:00Add to Calendar 2018-06-10 11:00:00 2018-06-10 12:00:00 Interlocking Structures Consider a set of convex figures in R^2. It can be proven that one of these figures can be moved out of the set by translation without disturbing the others. Therefore, any set of planar figures can be disassembled by moving all figures one by one. However, attempts to generalize it to R^3 have been unsuccessful and finally, quite unexpectedly, interlocking structures of convex bodies were found. These structures can be used in engineering. In a small grain there is no room for cracks, and crack propagation should be arrested on the boundary of the grain. On the other hand, grains "keep" each other. So it is possible to get "materials without crack propagation" and get new use of sparse materials, say ceramics. Surprisingly, such structures can be assembled with any type of platonic polyhedra, and they have a geometric beauty.   Mathematics Colloquium Room 201, Building 216 אוניברסיטת בר-אילן - Department of Mathematics mathoffice@math.biu.ac.il Asia/Jerusalem public
Place
Mathematics Colloquium Room 201, Building 216
Abstract

Consider a set of convex figures in R^2. It can be proven
that one of these figures can be moved out of the set by translation
without disturbing the others. Therefore, any set of planar figures
can be disassembled by moving all figures one by one. However,
attempts to generalize it to R^3 have been unsuccessful and finally,
quite unexpectedly, interlocking structures of convex bodies were
found. These structures can be used in engineering. In a small grain
there is no room for cracks, and crack propagation should be arrested
on the boundary of the grain. On the other hand, grains "keep" each
other. So it is possible to get "materials without crack propagation"
and get new use of sparse materials, say ceramics. Surprisingly, such
structures can be assembled with any type of platonic polyhedra, and
they have a geometric beauty.
 

Last Updated Date : 06/06/2018