You signed in with another tab or window. Reload to refresh your session.You signed out in another tab or window. Reload to refresh your session.You switched accounts on another tab or window. Reload to refresh your session.Dismiss alert
Mechanical snapping instabilities are leveraged by natural systems, metamaterials, and devices for rapid sensing, actuation, and shape changes, as well as to absorb impact. In all current forms of snapping, shapes deform in the same direction as the exerted forces, even though there is no physical law that dictates this. Here, we realize countersnapping mechanical structures that respond in the opposite way. In contrast to regular snapping, countersnapping manifests itself in a sudden shortening transition under increasing tension or a sudden increase in tensile force under increasing extension. We design these structures by combining basic flexible building blocks that leverage geometric nonlinearities. We demonstrate experimentally that countersnapping can be employed to obtain new exotic properties, such as unidirectional stick–slip motion, switchable stiffness that does not otherwise affect the state of the system, and passive resonance avoidance. Moreover, we demonstrate that combining multiple countersnapping elements allows sequential stiffness switching for elements coupled in parallel, or instantaneous collective switching for elements in series. By expanding the repertoire of realizable elastic instabilities, our work opens routes to principles for mechanical sensing, computation, and actuation.
10
+
Mechanical snapping instabilities. This is a sidenote with a reference are leveraged by natural systems, metamaterials, and devices for rapid sensing, actuation, and shape changes, as well as to absorb impact. In all current forms of snapping, shapes deform in the same direction as the exerted forces, even though there is no physical law that dictates this. Here, we realize countersnapping mechanical structures that respond in the opposite way. In contrast to regular snapping, countersnapping manifests itself in a sudden shortening transition under increasing tension or a[^1] sudden increase in tensile force under increasing extension. We design these structures by combining basic flexible building blocks that leverage geometric nonlinearities. We demonstrate experimentally that countersnapping can be employed to obtain new exotic properties, such as unidirectional stick–slip motion, switchable stiffness that does not otherwise affect the state of the system, and passive resonance avoidance. Moreover, we demonstrate that combining multiple countersnapping elements allows sequential stiffness switching for elements coupled in parallel, or instantaneous collective switching for elements in series. This is a margin note.
11
+
. By expanding the repertoire of realizable elastic instabilities, our work opens routes to principles for mechanical sensing, computation, and actuation.
0 commit comments