Related papers: Cutting holes in bistable folds
A creased thin disk is generally bistable since the crease could be pushed through to form a stable cone-like inverted state with an elastic singularity corresponding to the vertex of the conical surface. In a recent study, we found that…
Mechanical metamaterials capable of large deformations are an emerging platform for functional devices and structures across scales. Bistable designs are particularly attractive since they endow a single object with two configurations that…
Programmable folding of elastic sheets typically relies on predefined flexible creases or active materials-enabled hinges, which lack intrinsic bistability and limit reprogrammability within a single structure. Here, we present a…
The study of origami-based mechanical metamaterials usually focuses on the kinematics of deployable structures made of an assembly of rigid flat plates connected by hinges. When the elastic response of each panel is taken into account,…
The bistability of embedded elements provides a natural route through which to introduce reprogrammability to elastic meta-materials. One example of this is the soft morphable sheet, in which bistable elements that can be snapped up or…
Kirigami involves cutting a flat, thin sheet that allows it to morph from a closed, compact configuration into an open deployed structure via coordinated rotations of the internal tiles. By recognizing and generalizing the geometric…
Following on Part I of this work series on local kirigami mechanics, we present a study of a discretely creased mechanism as a model to investigate the mechanics of the basic geometric building block of kirigami--the e-cone. We consider an…
Multistable structures are objects with more than one stable conformation, exemplified by the simple switch. Continuum versions are often elastic composite plates or shells, such as the common measuring tape or the slap bracelet, both of…
Flexible surfaces can modulate fluid forces through deformation, enabling passive adaptation to flow conditions. Here we show that kirigami sheets, planar surfaces patterned with arrays of parallel slits, provide a simple route to tunable…
Origami and kirigami have emerged as potential tools for the design of mechanical metamaterials whose properties such as curvature, Poisson ratio, and existence of metastable states can be tuned using purely geometric criteria. A major…
A growing or shrinking disc will adopt a conical shape, its intrinsic geometry characterized by a surplus angle $se$ at the apex. If growth is slow, the cone will find its equilibrium. Whereas this is trivial if $se <= 0$, the disc can fold…
Bistability and snap-through instabilities are central to various mechanisms in nature and engineering, enabling rapid movement and large shape changes with minimal energy input. These phenomena are easily demonstrated by bending a piece of…
Shape-morphing structures, which are able to change their shapes from one state to another, are important in a wide range of engineering applications. A popular scenario is morphing from an initial two-dimensional (2D) shape that is flat to…
Kirigami tessellations, regular planar patterns formed by cutting flat, thin sheets, have attracted recent scientific interest for their rich geometries, surprising material properties and promise for technologies. Here we pose and solve…
Auxetic materials become thicker rather than thinner when stretched, exhibiting an unusual negative Poisson's ratio well suited for designing shape transforming metamaterials. Current auxetic designs, however, are often monostable and…
Over the past decade, kirigami--the Japanese art of paper cutting--has been playing an increasing role in the emerging field of mechanical metamaterials and a myriad of other mechanical applications. Nonetheless, a deep understanding of the…
Bistable mechanical systems exhibit two stable configurations where the elastic energy is locally minimized. To realize such systems, origami techniques have been proposed as a versatile platform to design deployable structures with both…
Bistable shells can reversibly change between two stable configurations with very little energetic input. Understanding what governs the shape and snap-through criteria of these structures is crucial for designing devices that utilize…
Soft deployable structures - unlike conventional piecewise rigid deployables based on hinges and springs - can assume intricate 3-D shapes, thereby enabling transformative technologies in soft robotics, shape-morphing architecture, and…
Manipulation of thin sheets by folding and cutting offers opportunity to engineer structures with novel mechanical properties, and to prescribe complex force-displacement relationships via material elasticity in combination with the…