Designing allostery-inspired response in mechanical networks

TL;DR

This paper introduces a computational method to precisely control mechanical responses in networks by removing a small fraction of bonds, mimicking biological allostery and enabling complex, targeted responses in physical systems.

Contribution

The authors develop a scalable approach to tune network responses, achieving targeted strain responses between node pairs with minimal bond removal, extending previous meta-material design strategies.

Findings

Successfully tuned responses between node pairs with ~1% bond removal

Controlled multiple source/target responses simultaneously

Fabricated physical networks demonstrating designed responses

Abstract

Recent advances in designing meta-materials have demonstrated that global mechanical properties of disordered spring networks can be tuned by selectively modifying only a small subset of bonds. Here, using a computationally-efficient approach, we extend this idea in order to tune more general properties of networks. With nearly complete success, we are able to produce a strain between any pair of target nodes in a network in response to an applied source strain on any other pair of nodes by removing only ~1% of the bonds. We are also able to control multiple pairs of target nodes, each with a different individual response, from a single source, and to tune multiple independent source/target responses simultaneously into a network. We have fabricated physical networks in macroscopic two- and three-dimensional systems that exhibit these responses. This targeted behavior is reminiscent of the long-range coupled conformational changes that often occur during allostery in proteins. The ease with which we create these responses may give insight into why allostery is a common means for the regulation of activity in biological molecules.