Out-of-plane deflection of plate-like metastructures in tension due to corrugation asymmetry

Abstract Architected metastructures offer unprecedented mechanical characteristics due to particular design and assembly of engineered local structures. Here, we study the out-of-plane deflection of plate-like metastructures designed with hexagonal corrugation. Due to the out-of-plane asymmetry of the corrugation, our metaplates develop out-of-plane deflection when put under tension. A theoretical model is developed to analyze the tensile response of the corrugated metaplates, and experiments are conducted on the metaplates made of silicone rubber. The tensile modulus of the silicone rubber is calibrated and the rubber metaplates are then measured under tension. Numerical simulations validate the theoretical and experimental results, and satisfactory agreements are obtained for the force–displacement relations (i.e., effective tensile modulus) and out-of-plane deflection. Parametric studies are carried out to investigate the influences of the geometry (e.g., height h and thickness t ) and the corrugation pattern (e.g., hexagonal diameter D h e x and rib width W r i b ) on the tensile response of the metaplates. The presented corrugated metaplates are envisioned as a promising path to optimize structures for multifunctional applications (e.g., wings in flying robots or light sails for interstellar space travel).