Tian Yu
Mechanics of thin structures
Bistability in creased thin conical sheets with holes
We study the bistable behavior of creased thin sheets under removal of singularities. Conical singularities create energy barriers, which give rise to bistability. Upon removing the singularity by making a hole around the vertex, bistability of creased cones maybe lost depending mainly on the hole size, and other factors such as crease stiffness, crease angle, hole shape and number of creases.
Numerical continuation of an inextensible strip model captures a shallow unstable equilibrium representing the energy barrier. This matches with our experimental observation. We also studied influences of other factors, such as crease stiffness, crease angle, number of creases, hole shape, etc. on the bistable behavior of creased cones.
