Interfacial metric mechanics: stitching patterns of shape change in active sheets.

ABSTRACT: A flat sheet programmed with a planar pattern of spontaneous shape change will morph into a curved surface. Such metric mechanics is seen in growing biological sheets, and may be engineered in actuating soft matter sheets such as phase-changing liquid crystal elastomers (LCEs), swelling gels and inflating baromorphs. Here, we show how to combine multiple patterns in a sheet by stitching regions of different shape changes together piecewise along interfaces. This approach allows simple patterns to be used as building blocks, and enables the design of multi-material or active/passive sheets. We give a general condition for an interface to be geometrically compatible, and explore its consequences for LCE/LCE, gel/gel and active/passive interfaces. In contraction/elongation systems such as LCE

SUBMITTER: Feng F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9240917 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature