Characteristics of mechanical metamaterials based on buckling elements

2017

Metamaterials are composed of structural elements and derive their properties mainly from the inner structure of the elements, rather than the properties of their constituent material. By designing an unstable structural element as the building block of a metamaterial, many interesting effective material properties can be obtained. The deformation and dissipation mechanisms of such a material built from unstable structural elements is studied in detail. To do so a combination of analytical, semi-analytical, and numerical models are applied to a single buckling element, a periodic cell, and finite size combinations of buckling elements including gradients in the properties of the building bl…