Response evolution of mechanical metamaterials under architectural transformations

New Journal of Physics, vol. 22, pp. 023030

Abstract

Abstract Architectural transformations play a key role in the evolution of complex systems, from design algorithms for metamaterials to flow and plasticity of disordered media. Here, we develop a general framework for the evolution of the linear mechanical response of network structures under discrete architectural transformations via sequential bond swapping: the removal and addition of elastic elements. We focus on a class of spatially complex metamaterials, consisting of triangular building blocks. Rotations of these building blocks, corresponding to removing and adding elastic elements, introduce (topological) architectural defects. We show that the metamaterials’ states of self stress play a crucial role in the mechanical response, and that the mutually exclusive self stress states between two different network architectures span the difference in their mechanical response. For our class of metamaterials, we identify a localized representation of these states of self stress, which allows us to capture the evolving response. We use our insights to understand the unusual stress-steering behaviour of topological defects.

Authors 4

1. Anne S. Meeussen corresponding Aachen Huygens-Kamerlingh Onnes Laboratory

   Leiden University · Institute for Atomic and Molecular Physics

   Affiliation as printed

   AMOLF, Science Park 104, 1098 XG Amsterdam, The Netherlands

   Huygens-Kamerlingh Onnes Laboratory, Universiteit Leiden, PO Box 9504, 2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands

2. Erdal C. Oğuz

   Tel Aviv University

   Affiliation as printed

   School of Mechanical Engineering and The Sackler Center for Computational Molecular and Materials Science, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel

3. Martin van Hecke Aachen Huygens-Kamerlingh Onnes Laboratory

   Leiden University · Institute for Atomic and Molecular Physics

   Affiliation as printed

   AMOLF, Science Park 104, 1098 XG Amsterdam, The Netherlands

   Huygens-Kamerlingh Onnes Laboratory, Universiteit Leiden, PO Box 9504, 2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands

4. Yair Shokef

   Tel Aviv University

   Affiliation as printed

   School of Mechanical Engineering and The Sackler Center for Computational Molecular and Materials Science, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel