Design of Hierarchically Cut Hinges for Highly Stretchable and Reconfigurable Metamaterials with Enhanced Strength

Applying hierarchical cuts to thin sheets of elastomer generates super-stretchable and reconfigurable metamaterials, exhibiting highly nonlinear stress-strain behaviors and tunable phononic bandgaps. The cut concept fails on brittle thin sheets due to severe stress concentration in the rotating hinges. By engineering the local hinge shapes and global hierarchical structure, cut-based reconfi gurable metamaterials with largely enhanced strength are realized.