Self-sealing is one of the fascinating functions in nature that enables living material systems to respond immediately to damage. A prime plant model is Delosperma cooperi, which can rapidly self-seal damaged succulent leaves by systematically deforming until the wound closes. Inspired by this self-sealing principle, a novel programmable mechanical metamaterial has been developed to mimic the underlying damage management concept. This material is able to react autonomously to changes in its physical condition caused by an induced damage. To design this ability into the programmable metamaterial, a permeable unit cell design has been developed that can change size depending on the internal pressure. The parameter space and associated mechanical functionality of the unit cell design is simulated and analyzed under periodic boundary conditions and various pressures. The principles of self-sealing behavior in designed metamaterials are investigated, crack closure efficiency is identified for different crack lengths, the limitations of the proposed approach are discussed, and successful crack closure is experimentally demonstrated in the fabricated metamaterial. Although this study facilitates the first step on the way of integrating new bio-inspired principles in the metamaterials, the results show how programmable mechanical metamaterials might extend materials design space from pure properties to life-like abilities.

中文翻译：

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具有自密封能力的仿生压力依赖性可编程机械超材料

自密封是自然界中令人着迷的功能之一，它使生物材料系统能够对损坏立即做出反应。一种主要的植物模型是Delosperma cooperi，它可以通过系统变形来快速自我封闭受损的多肉叶子，直到伤口闭合。受这种自密封原理的启发，开发了一种新型可编程机械超材料来模仿潜在的损伤管理概念。这种材料能够对其由诱导损伤引起的物理状况的变化做出自主反应。为了将这种能力设计到可编程超材料中，我们开发了一种可渗透的晶胞设计，它可以根据内部压力改变尺寸。在周期性边界条件和各种压力下对单元电池设计的参数空间和相关机械功能进行仿真和分析。研究了设计的超材料中的自密封行为原理，确定了不同裂纹长度的裂纹闭合效率，讨论了所提出方法的局限性，并在制造的超材料中通过实验证明了成功的裂纹闭合。尽管这项研究推动了在超材料中整合新的仿生原理的第一步，但结果表明可编程机械超材料如何将材料设计空间从纯粹的特性扩展到逼真的能力。