title: Pressure-actuated cellular structures.
abstract: Shape changing structures will play an important role in future engineering designs since rigid structures are usually only optimal for a small range of service conditions. Hence, a concept for reliable and energy-efficient morphing structures that possess a large strength to self-weight ratio would be widely applicable. We propose a novel concept for morphing structures that is inspired by the nastic movement of plants. The idea is to connect prismatic cells with tailored pentagonal and/or hexagonal cross sections such that the resulting cellular structure morphs into given target shapes for certain cell pressures. An efficient algorithm for computing equilibrium shapes as well as cross-sectional geometries is presented. The potential of this novel concept is demonstrated by several examples that range from a flagellum like propulsion device to a morphing aircraft wing.
authors.affiliation: Aerospace Structures and Computational Mechanics Group, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands. m.e.pagitz@tudelft.nl
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pagitz
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Lamacchia
authors.forename: J M A M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Hol
mesh_terms: D032701:Biomimetics / Q000295:instrumentation*; D003198:Computer Simulation; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D018515:Plant Leaves / Q000502:physiology*; D011312:Pressure; D013314:Stress, Mechanical; D014160:Transducers, Pressure