Art-inspired solar cells

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.engin.umich.edu/college/about/news/stories/2015/september/art-inspired-solar-cells

[font face=Serif][font size=5]Art-inspired solar cells[/font]

9/8/2015

From: Kate McAlpine
Michigan Engineering

[font size=3]Solar cells capture up to 40 percent more energy when they can track the sun across the sky, but conventional, motorized trackers are too heavy and bulky for pitched rooftops and vehicle surfaces. Now, by borrowing from kirigami, the ancient Japanese art of paper cutting, researchers at the University of Michigan developed solar cells that can have it both ways.

“The design takes what a large tracking solar panel does and condenses it into something that is essentially flat,” said Aaron Lamoureux, a doctoral student in materials science and engineering and first author on the paper in Nature Communications.

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To explore patterns, the team of engineers worked with paper artist Matthew Shlian, a lecturer in the school of art and design. Shlian showed Lamoureux and Shtein how to create them in paper using a plotter cutter. Lamoureux then made more precise patterns in Kapton, a space-grade plastic, using a carbon-dioxide laser.

Although the team tried more complex designs, the simplest pattern worked best. With cuts like rows of dashes, the plastic pulled apart into a basic mesh. The interconnected strips of Kapton tilt in proportion to how much the mesh is stretched, to an accuracy of about one degree.

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[eppur_se_muova]

1. Uh, that looks like expanded metal grate ...

http://www.gratingpacific.com/expanded_metals/expanded_metals_introduction.html

Regular Expanded Metal
Regular Expanded Metal is an open mesh, finished product that is simultaneously die-cut and expanded as it moves through progressive dies on a press. In the expanding process, the metal can be expanded up to ten times its original size, lose up to 80% of its original weight per square foot, and still retain form and rigidity. (Regular Expanded Metal can also referred to as "Raised" or "Standard" Expanded Metal)

Maybe they could have talked to structural engineers, instead of paper cutters ...

You may recall walking over safety flooring like this.

[OKIsItJustMe]

2. Yes, but, how many times can you flex the grate before metal fatique sets in?

The notion here is to flex the plastic with the movement of the sun…