Designing Counting Metamaterials

Persistent URL of this record https://hdl.handle.net/1887/94288

In Collections

This item can be found in the following collections:

Physics (MSc)

Kwakernaak, Lennard (2020)

Designing Counting Metamaterials

Master thesis | Physics (MSc)

In this thesis we will demonstrates how to construct a counting mechanical metamate- rial that is based on bi-stable buckling beams by creating a material that can count to ten. By coupling bistable buckling beams in a suitable geometry we can design mate- rials that when cyclically compressed between two critical strains. We show that when two adjacent buckled beams touch, there is a characteristic length scale - the inversion length - that determines which of two beams snaps through when compressed to the snapping strain. We experimentally and analytically work out the characteristic inver- sion distance length scale that determines the outcome of the battle of the buckling beams and show how to modify beam geometries to design counting behaviour for many beam materials.