Ricerc@Sapienza

Multistable shells have been recently proposed as an effective solution to design morphing structures. We describe a class of shallow shells which are bistable after one of their sides, initially curved, is clamped along a flat line. Supposing the shell being assembled as a composite laminate, we show how the anisotropy of the material can influence the multistable behaviour and the robustness of stable configurations. Specifically, we focus on orthotropic laminated shells using the polar method for a complete representation of the anisotropic elastic properties.

The numerical and experimental validation of multistable behavior of cantilever shells is addressed. The design of the laminated composite shells is driven by a recently proposed semi-analytical shell model, whose predictions are verified and critically examined by means of finite element simulations and stability tests on two manufactured demonstrators. In addition, the influence of the main design parameters on the shells stability scenario is discussed.