Self-healing, hardness controlled car bumper

September 2014 - June 2015


We created a car bumper with a layer of shape memory alloy (SMA) wire mesh that could pop out any dents and tune its stiffness using the engine heat. Car engines operate at high temperatures and require a cooling system to prevent overheating. By allowing this excess/wasted heat to flow through the SMA wire mesh after a collision that led to a dent, the SMA wire mesh will return to its original (pre-deformed) shape thus repairing the dent. As part of the Memory Shape Alloys class (MEC575), a proof of concept prototype was built and tested in lab showing the effectiveness of this bumper design.

Contributions

Shape Memory Alloy Characterisation
Bi-stable Mechanism Design
Concept Generation and Prototyping

Collaborators

Arnaud Pioli
Bertrand Bevillard