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Topic · Mechanical Engineering

Cellular and Composite Structures

Cellular and Composite Structures is a research topic within Mechanical Engineering. Science Explorer counts 18k research works in it since 1950. 9.8% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers focuses on the manufacture, characterization, and application of cellular metals and metal foams, including topics such as mechanical metamaterials, additive manufacturing, porous metals for biomedical implants, auxetic materials, and energy absorption. The research covers a wide range of mechanical properties and structural performance of these materials.

  • Cellular Metals
  • Metal Foams
  • Mechanical Metamaterials
  • Additive Manufacturing
  • Porous Metals
  • Auxetic Materials
  • Biomedical Implants
  • Mechanical Properties
  • Energy Absorption
  • Structural Performance
Research works
18k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
1.8k
per year above
Top-10% rate
9.8%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+61%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
China
55% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Cellular and Composite Structures

Which countries lead Cellular and Composite Structures research?

By volume, China and India publish the most (2.9k and 542 works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 China 2.9k works
  2. 2 India 542 works
  3. 3 United States 539 works
  4. 4 Türkiye 246 works
  5. 5 Iran 221 works
  6. 6 United Kingdom 211 works
  7. 7 Italy 207 works
  8. 8 Germany 190 works
  9. 9 France 134 works
  10. 10 Australia 123 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

China: 54.7%India: 10.2%United States: 10.1%Türkiye: 4.6%6 others listed: 20.4%55%largest
China2,917 · 54.7%India542 · 10.2%United States539 · 10.1%Türkiye246 · 4.6%6 others listed1,085 · 20.4%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Cellular and Composite Structures research?

By volume in 2022-now, Harbin Institute of Technology publishes the most Cellular and Composite Structures research, followed by Xi'an Jiaotong University and Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Harbin Institute of TechnologyChina 80 works
  2. 2 Xi'an Jiaotong UniversityChina 79 works
  3. 3 Nanjing University of Aeronautics and AstronauticsChina 78 works
  4. 4 Beijing Institute of TechnologyChina 77 works
  5. 5 Northwestern Polytechnical UniversityChina 71 works
  6. 6 Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 69 works
  7. 7 Dalian University of TechnologyChina 62 works
  8. 8 Central South UniversityChina 57 works
  9. 9 Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueFrance 56 works
  10. 10 Wuhan University of TechnologyChina 48 works

Who are the leading researchers in Cellular and Composite Structures?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Cellular and Composite Structures include Zhong Lin Wang, Wei Huang and Kai You Wang.

  1. 1 Zhong Lin Wang United States 491k citations
  2. 2 Wei Huang China 267k citations
  3. 3 Kai You Wang China 224k citations
  4. 4 Lei Jiang China 214k citations
  5. 5 Seeram Ramakrishna Singapore 186k citations
  6. 6 Qiang Zhang China 184k citations
  7. 7 Hui–Ming Cheng China 183k citations
  8. 8 Pulickel Madhavapanicker Ajayan United States 173k citations
  9. 9 Han Zhang China 161k citations
  10. 10 Yadong Li China 155k citations

Ranked by citations received across their whole record, among researchers with at least three works on this topic.

What are the most cited papers in Cellular and Composite Structures?

The most cited paper in Cellular and Composite Structures is "Cellular solids structure and properties" (Lorna J. Gibson, Michael Farries Ashby, ,, 1997), with 9,052 citations. Next come "Foam Structures with a Negative Poisson's Ratio" (3,871) and "Manufacture, characterisation and application of cellular metals and metal foams" (3,783).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 Cellular solids structure and properties Lorna J. Gibson, Michael Farries Ashby, , 1997 9,052
2 Foam Structures with a Negative Poisson's Ratio Roderic S. Lakes · Science 27 Feb 1987 3,871
3 Manufacture, characterisation and application of cellular metals and metal foams John Banhart · Progress in Materials Science 2001 3,783
4 THE MATERIAL BONE: Structure-Mechanical Function Relations Stephen Weiner, H. Daniel Wagner · Annual Review of Materials Science Aug 1998 2,731
5 Metal Foams: A Design Guide MF Ashby, Anthony Glyn Evans, NA Fleck et al. · Applied Mechanics Reviews Nov 2001 2,693
All 100 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Cellular and Composite Structures research done?

The largest centres of Cellular and Composite Structures research in 2022-now are Beijing (China), Nanjing (China), Xi'an (China) and Wuhan (China). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Wuzhou.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 BeijingChina 416 works
  2. 2 NanjingChina 231 works
  3. 3 Xi'anChina 225 works
  4. 4 WuhanChina 161 works
  5. 5 ShanghaiChina 161 works
  6. 6 HarbinChina 140 works
  7. 7 ChangshaChina 125 works
  8. 8 TehranIran 106 works
  9. 9 TianjinChina 102 works
  10. 10 ChongqingChina 100 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. WuzhouCN · 20.8 works131×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Cellular and Composite Structures than the world average.

See Cellular and Composite Structures on the map

Where is the best place to study Cellular and Composite Structures?

Among universities, judged by research, RMIT University, Khalifa University of Science and Technology and Harbin Institute of Technology score highest, combining excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%20%40%mean 24.81%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →RMIT UniversityNational University …Khalifa University o…Harbin Institute of …
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the first ten of the table below, at the default weights. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

Excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged
40%
Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share
10%
Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale
30%
Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%
10%
Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad
10%
Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.
#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1RMIT UniversityAustralia 84.241.3%11.7×27 +162.1%
2Khalifa University of Science and TechnologyUnited Arab Emirates 67.223.0%18.5×26 +118.7%
3Harbin Institute of TechnologyChina 66.717.4%8.3×80 +26.5%
4National University of SingaporeSingapore 66.631.0%4.0×28 +33.0%
5Beijing Institute of TechnologyChina 65.913.5%10.9×77 +69.0%
6Nanjing Tech UniversityChina 65.528.4%11.8×35 +262.5%
7Swinburne University of TechnologyAustralia 64.435.3%9.7×16 +14.0%
8Hong Kong Polytechnic UniversityChina 64.030.3%4.4×22 +89.0%
9Xi'an Jiaotong UniversityChina 61.813.0%7.6×79 +71.6%
10Dalian University of TechnologyChina 61.614.9%11.0×62 +74.9%

Universities only. The score blends excellence (40%), size (30%), specialisation (10%), growth (10%), international reach (10%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise.

Every institution in Cellular and Composite Structures, country by country

Is Cellular and Composite Structures research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 61% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2025. The fastest-growing topics are Cellular and Composite Structures.

still counting19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon: one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Its share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share: all of science grows. This is Cellular and Composite Structures as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.024% in 2024.

still counting0.020%0.040%Cellular and Composite Structures0.031% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Cellular and Composite Structures over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Year by year.

still counting5%10%15%Cellular and Composite Structures9.8% in 2025200020102020

Of each year's works in it, the share that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. A field is the world for its own topics, so there is no other line to hold it against.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.

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