2018/01/01 by Nakul P. Bende, Nakul Bende, Tian Yu +7 · 31 citations
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · Engineering · Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Materials and Mechanics #Composite material #Conical surface #Frustum #Geometry #Materials science #Mathematics #Modular Robots and Swarm Intelligence #Multistability #Physics #Plant and Biological Electrophysiology Studies #Shell (structure) #cond-mat.soft
paper · pdf · doi:10.1039/c8sm01355a
published in Soft Matter 14(42), 8636-8642 (Royal Society of Chemistry) · Total: 12 pages; Main text: 7 figures; Supporting info: Text, 6 figures, 4 movies
openalex publication_date 2018/01/01 · arxiv created 2018/08/07 · arxiv updated 2018/10/19 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06
We study the origins of multiple mechanically stable states exhibited by an elastic shell comprising multiple conical frusta, a geometry common to reconfigurable corrugated structures such as 'bendy straws'. This multistability is characterized by mechanical stability of axially extended and collapsed states, as well as a partially inverted 'bent' state that exhibits stability in any azimuthal direction. To understand the origin of this behavior, we study how geometry and internal stress affect the stability of linked conical frusta. We find that tuning geometrical parameters such as the frustum heights and cone angles can provide axial bistability, whereas stability in the bent state requires a sufficient amount of internal pre-stress, resulting from a mismatch between the natural and geometric curvatures of the shell. We provide insight into the latter effect through curvature analysis during deformation using X-ray computed tomography (CT), and with a simple mechanical model that captures the qualitative behavior of these highly reconfigurable systems.