Programmable and Reconfigurable Surfaces with Kirigami-Inspired Bistable Elements

Active shaping and recovery are the important paths to reconfiguration and reuse of the structure, but only a few reconfiguration structures have been analyzed and explored, and their applicability also needs to be improved. Active shaping and recovery methods are proposed for the kirigami-inspired element with bistability and self- locking property in this paper. A rotationally symmetric kirigami pattern is designed with five geometric parameters at first. The finite element models are established to investigate the vertical tension and compression behavior. The bistability and self-locking behavior are analyzed systematically by the relation curves between strain energy, vertical and rotational displacement of the central square facet. The proposed active shaping method can be divided into the in-plane tension stage and the free deformation stage. Moreover, the key of the proposed active shaping method is the arrangement of the actuating position and the corresponding displacement and force, which are reported by parametric analysis. The recovery method is also put forward to make the model return from the folding stable state to the unfolding stable state. Besides, the cardboard model experiments are performed to verify the numerical analysis results, which is followed by the active shaping analysis of the surface with kirigami-inspired bistable elements. This principle opens a novel path to establish programmable and reconfigurable surface design systems with kirigami-inspired elements.