Graded Kirigami Composites for Programmed Strain Distributions

Abstract

Stretchable devices and components have emerged as a vital platform for wearable electronics, biomedical sensors, and soft robotics. However, the soft‐rigid interfaces that arise when integrating rigid components with soft and deformable substrates can cause stress concentrations, leading to premature failure of devices at these multi‐material interfaces. Here, a stiffness‐graded kirigami composite is introduced to control strain transitions at soft‐rigid interfaces. The graded composite consists of soft elastomers bonded to rigid kirigami films with defined beam architectures to tune the stiffness gradient along the loading direction. Kirigami geometry is designed by coupling finite element analysis with experimental digital image correlation to achieve diverse strain profiles for flexible interfaces. Furthermore, an inverse design method is utilized to determine kirigami patterns to obtain predefined strain fields. These stiffness‐graded kirigami composites create opportunities for more robust soft‐rigid interfaces and defect‐tolerant stretchable devices and robots.

Document Details

Document Type
Pub Defense Publication
Publication Date
Dec 04, 2021
Source ID
10.1002/admt.202101241

Entities

People

  • A. Haque
  • Dohgyu Hwang
  • Michael D. Bartlett

Organizations

  • Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
  • Office of Naval Research
  • Virginia Tech

Tags

Fields of Study

  • Engineering

Readers

  • Agent-Based Social Robotics and Mobile-Assisted Learning in Virtual Environments.
  • Manufacturing Engineering.
  • Reinforced Composite Materials

Technology Areas

  • AI & ML
  • Autonomy
  • Biotechnology
  • Microelectronics
  • Microelectronics - Microelectromechanical Systems