Study on a new concept of multi-stable lattice structure

A new multi-stable lattice structure which is assembled by rectangular bi-stable composite laminates is designed. The snap-through of rectangular cross-ply composite laminates and a lattice structure is numerically and experimentally studied. The experiments to measure the snapping force levels of rectangular laminates and lattice structures are conducted. A method based on commercial software ABAQUS to simulate the snap-through behaviors of lattice structures is presented. Snap through of lattice structures are successfully described with the use of this method. The same phenomenon between the FEA and experiments are observed. The predicted curvatures show a good agreement with experimental results while there are some errors between predicted and measured critical loads.