A multi-stable wavy skin based on bi-stable laminates

This paper develops a multi-stable wavy skin which consists of tri-stable cells constructed by bi-stable laminates. The approach how to interlink bi-stable laminates and how to design the multi-stable wavy skin is presented. A multi-stable wavy skin consisting four tri-stable cells is fabricated to validate the design method. The experiments are conducted to measure the critical loads snapping the multi-stable skin. The snap-through processes among multiple states are simulated using finite element techniques. The results show a good correlation and give an intuitive understanding of multiple snap-through behavior. A close contact between the neighboring laminates is demonstrated and the smooth multi-stable wavy skin can be obtained when the cell deforms to the bent configuration. The feature highlights its potential application in morphing structures. Crown Copyright (c) 2012 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.