Characterisation of tessellated bistable composite laminates

Tessellated surfaces consisting of both unsymmetric composite elements with opposite layups, and unsymmetric composite elements in combination with symmetric composite elements, are investigated. It is shown that in simple cases these continuous surfaces only exhibit bistability due to the strong interaction between the connected elements. Strategies to mitigate against this interaction are proposed and implemented to achieve surfaces with high degrees of multistability up to the theoretical maximum. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.