English

Modelling planar kirigami metamaterials as generalized elastic continua

Soft Condensed Matter 2023-06-16 v2

Abstract

Kirigami metamaterials dramatically change their shape through a coordinated motion of nearly rigid panels and flexible slits. Here, we study a model system for mechanism-based planar kirigami featuring periodic patterns of quadrilateral panels and rhombi slits, with the goal of predicting their engineering scale response to a broad range of loads. We develop a generalized continuum model based on the kirigami's effective (cell-averaged) nonlinear deformation, along with its slit actuation and gradients thereof. The model accounts for three sources of elasticity: a strong preference for the effective fields to match those of a local mechanism, inter-panel stresses arising from gradients in slit actuation, and distributed hinge bending. We provide a finite-element formulation of this model and implement it using the commercial software Abaqus. Simulations of the model agree quantitatively with experiments across designs and loading conditions.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2206.00153,
  title  = {Modelling planar kirigami metamaterials as generalized elastic continua},
  author = {Yue Zheng and Imtiar Niloy and Ian Tobasco and Paolo Celli and Paul Plucinsky},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2206.00153},
  year   = {2023}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-24T11:35:18.230Z