Related papers: Toggling stiffness via multistability
Soft electronics have recently gathered considerable interest thanks to their bio-mechanical compatibility. An important feature of such deformable conductors is their electrical response to strain. While development of stretchable…
Recent developments in the engineering of metamaterials have brought forth a myriad of mesmerizing mechanical properties that do not exist in ordinary solids. Among these, twisting metamaterials, acoustical chirality, or Willis coupling are…
Macroscale robotic systems have demonstrated great capabilities of high speed, precise, and agile functions. However, the ability of soft robots to perform complex tasks, especially in centimeter and millimeter scale, remains limited due to…
4D printing of flat sheets that self-fold into architected 3D structures is a powerful origami-inspired approach for the fabrication of multi-functional devices and metamaterials. The possibility to endow the initially flat sheet with a…
Acoustic metamaterials are artificial structures, often lattice of resonators, with unusual properties. They can be engineered to stop wave propagation in specific frequency bands. Once manufactured, their dispersive qualities remain…
There is a growing mechanics literature concerning the macroscopic properties of mechanism-based mechanical metamaterials. This amounts mathematically to a homogenization problem involving nonlinear elasticity. A key goal is to identify the…
The main result of this work is a homogenization theorem via variational convergence for elastic materials with stiff checkerboard-type heterogeneities under the assumptions of physical growth and non-self-interpenetration. While the…
It is shown that a compound elastic structure, which displays a dynamic instability, may be designed as the union (or 'fusion') of two structures which are stable when separately analyzed. The compound elastic structure has two degrees of…
Mechanical metamaterials are renowned for their ability to achieve high stiffness and strength at low densities, often at the expense of low ductility and stretchability-a persistent trade-off in materials. In contrast, materials such as…
Advances in manufacturing techniques may now realize virtually any imaginable microstructures, paving the way for architected materials with properties beyond those found in nature. This has lead to a quest for closing gaps in…
Bundles of filamentous polymers are primary structural components of a broad range of cytoskeletal structures, and their mechanical properties play key roles in cellular functions ranging from locomotion to mechanotransduction and…
Topological mechanics can realize soft modes in mechanical metamaterials in which the number of degrees of freedom for particle motion is finely balanced by the constraints provided by interparticle interactions. However, solid objects are…
Aging populations and the rising prevalence of neurological and musculoskeletal disorders increase the demand for wearable mobility assistive devices that are effective, comfortable, and anatomically compatible. Many existing systems use…
Springs are commonly used in wearable robotic devices to provide assistive joint torque without the need for motors and batteries. However, different tasks (such as walking or running) and different users (such as athletes with strong legs…
Mechanical stresses are increasingly found to be associated with various biological functionalities. At the same time, topological defects are being identified across a diverse range of biological systems and are points of localized…
Recent advances in metamaterials and fabrication techniques have revived interest in mechanical computing. Contrary to techniques relying on static deformations of buckling beams or origami-based lattices, the integration of wave scattering…
Control of soft robotic manipulators remains a challenge for designs with advanced capabilities and novel actuation. Two significant limitations are multi-axis, three-dimensional motion of soft bodies alongside actuator dynamics and…
A dynamic mitigation mechanism for instability growth was proposed and discussed in the paper [Phys. Plasmas 19, 024503 (2012)]. In the present paper the robustness of the dynamic instability mitigation mechanism is discussed further. The…
Biological membranes are host to proteins and molecules which may form domain-like structures resulting in spatially-varying material properties. Vesicles with such heterogeneous membranes can exhibit intricate shapes at equilibrium and…
We observe and analyze the phenomenon of bistability emergent from cooperative stiffening in hyper-elastic metamaterials. Using experimental and numerical results of identical geometric designs, we show evidence that a single unit is…