Unitn logo
L4DReaMS logo

Diego Misseroni

Professor of Aerospace Structures

L4DReaMS logo

ori-EML ori-EML

Laboratory for the
Design of Reconfigurable Metamaterials & Structures

In our laboratory, we design, realize, and test mechanical metamaterials, flexible structures, and cellular materials with superior static and dynamic properties. We aim to create advanced mechanical systems with a broad range of applications by combining mechanical modeling, computational analysis, and advanced experimental techniques.

reut column
origami
torsion
auxetic
torsion
cloak
lab
lab
❮ ❯

Highlights

Research group news

Nov

2023

Dr. Diego Misseroni is the recipient of the 2024 Thomas J. R. Hughes (ASME) Young Investigator Award for contributions to the fundamental understanding of the mechanical behavior of architected metamaterials by innovative experimental realizations leading to new insights and theoretical findings. (Here more details)

Nov

2023

The article "Flutter instability in solids and structures, with a view on biomechanics and metamaterials" made the cover of the Proceedings of the Royal Society A.

PRSA-cover

July

2023

Dr. Diego Misseroni is the recipient of the 2022 Zwick Roell Science Award and Paul Roell Medal for his innovative use of material testing machines in conducting experiments on metamaterials.

photo Zwick award

June

2023

Dr. Diego Misseroni has obtained the Italian Scientific Habilitation for the role of Full Professor in Aeronautical, Aerospace, and Naval Engineering (09/A1).

Apr

2023

Job alert! Seeking skilled and motivated PhD students and Post-Doc researchers for the 2022 European Research Council (ERC) Consolidator Grant project on origami/kirigami-based metamaterials design. Interested? Email diego.misseroni@unitn.it with your CV, bachelor's and master's transcripts, and a motivation letter. Selection based solely on excellence and merit.

logo ERC

Feb

2023

Dr. Diego Misseroni has been awarded a 2022 European Research Council (ERC) Consolidator Grant, for the project S-FOAM.

logo ERC

Jan

2023

Dr. Diego Misseroni has been appointed as a member of the EML Early Career Advisory Board (EML-ECAB).

Jan

2023

Dr. Diego Misseroni has joined the School of Engineering and Applied Science, Princeton University, as a Fulbright visiting scholar.

logo princeton

Nov

2022

Dr. Diego Misseroni is a recipient of the 2022 EML Young Investigator Award for his paper "Experimental realization of tunable Poisson’s ratio in deployable origami metamaterials."

photo EML award

Nov

2022

The article "3D printed architected lattice structures by material jetting" made the cover of the Materials Today journal.

MatTod-cover

Oct

2022

The article "Triclinic metamaterials by tristable origami with reprogrammable frustration" made the frontispiece of the Advanced Materials journal.

AM-cover

Jun

2022

Dr. Diego Misseroni has been awarded the Fulbright fellowship - Research Scholar, and he was received by the Chargé d’Affaires at the U.S. Embassy to Italy, Thomas Smitham, at his residence in Villa Taverna, Rome.

photo ambassador

Jun

2022

The article "3D printed architected lattice structures by material jetting" has been accepted for publication in the Materials Today journal.

May

2022

The article "Experimental realization of tunable Poisson’s ratio in deployable origami metamaterials" made the cover of the Extreme Mechanics Letters journal.

eml-cover

Apr

2022

Dr. Diego Misseroni has been appointed Associate Professor at the University of Trento.

Covers

Articles featured on the cover of International Journals

Mat Tod Cover
AM cover
EML cover
Mat Tod Cover
05 PRSA cover
04 PRSA cover
03 PRSA cover
02 PRSA cover
01 PRSA cover
01 PRSA cover

Research topics

Selected publications

ori-EML

01

Origami engineering

We have invented a novel experimental setup suitable to study the Poisson effects in 2D origami tessellations that undergo simultaneous deformations in both the applied and transverse directions. The setup comprises a gripping mechanism, which we call a Saint-Venant fixture, to eliminate Saint-Venant end effects during uniaxial testing experiment.

Check out our article on "Extreme Mechanics letters."

shunt_EML

02

Active metamaterials

We have designed a three-phase microstructured materials made of a phononic crystal coupled to local resonators. By tuning the impedance/admittance of the electrical circuits, it is possible to fully adjust the constitutive properties of the shunting piezoelectric material, thus controllling pass and stop bands.

Check out our article on "Extreme Mechanics letters."

therm-aux_PRSA

03

Auxetic structures

We have designed, realized, and tested an isotropic microstructured medium with both negative CTE and negative Poisson’s ratio. The effective CTE can be finely tuned by playing with the thermal expansion contrast ratio between the two phases and the geometrical configuration of the internal structure.

Check out our article on the "Proceedings of the Royal Society A."

invis_PRSA

04

Elastic invisibility

We have introduced a new method based on the concept of reinforcement, achieved via elastic stiffening and mass redistribution, to cloak multiple voids embedded into an elastic plate. This simple technique produces invisibility of the voids to flexural waves within an extremely broad range of frequencies.

Check out our article on the "Proceedings of the Royal Society A."

flutter_JMPS

05

Flutter instability

We have designed, manufactured, and tested a new experimental apparatus to investigate flutter and divergence instability in viscoelastic rods produced by tangentially follower forces. We have provided the first experimental determination of the destabilizing role of dissipation on the onset of flutter.

Check out our article on the "Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids."

cloak_SciRep

06

Cloaking

Based on rigorous theoretical findings, we have realized a proof-of-concept design for a structured square cloak enclosing a void in an elastic lattice. We have implemented high-precision fabrication and experimental testing of an elastic invisibility cloak for flexural waves in a mechanical lattice.

Check out our article on the "Scientific Reports."

snake_JRSI

07

Snake locomotion

A model for serpentine locomotion is derived from a novel perspective based on concepts from configurational mechanics. The motion is realized through the release of the elastic energy of a deformable rod, sliding inside a frictionless channel, which represents a snake moving against lateral restraints.

Check out our article on the "Journal of the Royal Society Interface."

tors_PRSA

08

Configurational forces

Locomotion associated with torsional deformation of an elastic rod in a frictionless system has been introduced and substantiated both theoretically and experimentally, opening a new perspective in animal propulsion and in the mechanical design of deformable systems.

Check out our article on the "Proceedings of the Royal Society A."

tens_buckling_PRSA

09

Surprising instabilities

We have shown for the first time that it is possible to design structures (i.e. mechanical systems whose elements are governed by the equation of the elastica) exhibiting bifurcation and instability ("buckling") under tensile load of constant direction and point of application ("dead").

Check out our article on the "Proceedings of the Royal Society A."