Metasoft 2026 - Multiscale analysis of fatigue and memory effects in model disordered materials: from colloids to textile to polymers

Project leader : Stefano AIME & Frédéric LECHENAULT

Schools involved : ESPCI Paris - PSL et ENS - PSL

Project summary:

How materials "remember" the stress they have undergone

When a material is repeatedly bent, stretched or compressed, even gently, it can gradually deteriorate and eventually break. This phenomenon is well known, but what actually happens inside the material over successive cycles of deformation is still poorly understood.

This project seeks to observe and explain these mechanisms by combining mechanical resistance measurements with imaging techniques, in order to see both how the material deforms as a whole and how its internal structure changes at the level of the fibres or small particles that make it up. Two types of materials will be studied: gels and polymer networks on one hand, and woven or felted textiles on the other, in which small defects will be deliberately introduced to study their effect.

The goal is to identify common rules across these different materials, to better predict when and how they will degrade. In the longer term, this work could help design more durable materials and better anticipate their wear in everyday applications.