Design of Pseudo-Mechanisms and Multistable Units for Mechanical Metamaterials

Nitin Singh and Martin van Hecke
Phys. Rev. Lett. 126, 248002 – Published 17 June 2021
PDFHTMLExport Citation

Abstract

Mechanisms—collections of rigid elements coupled by perfect hinges which exhibit a zero-energy motion—motivate the design of a variety of mechanical metamaterials. We enlarge this design space by considering pseudo-mechanisms, collections of elastically coupled elements that exhibit motions with very low energy costs. We show that their geometric design generally is distinct from those of true mechanisms, thus opening up a large and virtually unexplored design space. We further extend this space by designing building blocks with bistable and tristable energy landscapes, realize these by 3D printing, and show how these form unit cells for multistable metamaterials.

  • Figure
  • Figure
  • Figure
  • Figure
  • Received 2 April 2020
  • Accepted 26 May 2021

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.126.248002

© 2021 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Condensed Matter, Materials & Applied PhysicsPolymers & Soft Matter

Authors & Affiliations

Nitin Singh1 and Martin van Hecke1,2

  • 1AMOLF, Science Park 104, 1098 XG Amsterdam, Netherlands
  • 2Huygens-Kamerlingh Onnes Lab, Leiden University, PObox 9504, 2300 RA Leiden, Netherlands

Article Text (Subscription Required)

Click to Expand

Supplemental Material (Subscription Required)

Click to Expand

References (Subscription Required)

Click to Expand
Issue

Vol. 126, Iss. 24 — 18 June 2021

Reuse & Permissions
Access Options
Author publication services for translation and copyediting assistance advertisement

Authorization Required


×
×

Images

×

Sign up to receive regular email alerts from Physical Review Letters

Log In

Cancel
×

Search


Article Lookup

Paste a citation or DOI

Enter a citation
×