Oligomodal metamaterials with multifunctional mechanics

This dataset contains all data as used for the paper 'Oligomodal metamaterials with multifunctional mechanics', as published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Abstract: Mechanical metamaterials are artificial composites that exhibit a wide range of advanced functionalities such as negative Poisson’s ratio, shape-shifting, topological protection, multistability, extreme strength-to-density ratio and enhanced energy dissipation. In particular, flexible metamaterials often harness zero-energy deformation modes. To date, such flexible metamaterials have a single property, e.g. a single shape change, or are pluripotent, i.e. they can have many different responses, but typically require complex actuation protocols. Here, we introduce a novel class of oligomodal metamaterials that encode a few distinct properties that can be selectively controlled under uniaxial compression. To demonstrate this concept, we introduce a combinatorial design space containing various families of metamaterials. These families include monomodal—i.e. with a single zero-energy deformation mode, oligomodal—i.e. with a constant number of zero-energy deformation modes, and plurimodal—i.e. with many zero-energy deformation modes, whose number increases with system size. We then confirm the multifunctional nature of oligomodal metamaterials using both boundary textures and viscoelasticity. In particular, we realize a metamaterial that has a negative (positive) Poisson’s ratio for low (high) compression rate over a finite range of strains. The ability of our oligomodal metamaterials to host multiple mechanical responses within a single structure paves the way towards multi-functional materials and devices.