We are an interdisciplinary research group in the Faculty of Aerospace Engineering at TU Delft.

Nature utilises hierarchy at multiple length scales to structure relatively weak building blocks into complex shapes with outstanding mechanical performance. Despite successful research aimed at implementing biological design principles in synthetic materials, man-made manufacturing technologies remain limited compared to the elegant directed self-assembly of living organisms to grow materials.

In our lab, we combine bottom up self-assembly with top-down shaping using additive manufacturing to generate lightweight structures with hierarchical architectures and interesting properties at application relevant scales. We like to look for ways to leverage shaping freedom to enhance performance and properties of interesting new materials.

We focus on three key areas:
  • Digital fabrication of hierarchical composites
  • Bio-inspired composites
  • Biologically fabricated composites​ 

We believe that addressing societal problems requires team-work, therefore we like to work with other research groups and industry of diverse backgrounds! Feel free to get in touch!

Kunal Masania

Principal Investigator
About Kunal
​
The lab is headed by Kunal Masania (CV) and was founded in Jan 2020. Kunal obtained his PhD in Mechanical Engineering on the fracture mechanics of multi-scale composites from Imperial College London, UK in 2010. In 2011 he joined the University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland, to develop innovative manufacturing of new high-performance materials at industrial scale. In 2015 at ETH Zurich, Switzerland, he turned focus to the development of hierarchical structured materials with inspiration from the natural world using additive manufacturing. His work has been recognised by various prizes such as the MaP Career Seed Award from the ETH Foundation, JEC Innovation Award and nominated best Academic/Research Team in the 3D printing industry awards.

Where to find us

Shaping Matter Laboratory
Faculty of Aerospace Engineering, TU Delft
Kluyverweg 1, 2629 HS Delft, the Netherlands