Multistable shape-reconfigurable architected materials encompassing living hinges and enabling combinations of high strength, high volumetric change, and complex shape-morphing patterns are introduced. Analytical and numerical investigations, validated by experiments, are performed to characterize the mechanical behavior of the proposed materials. The proposed architected materials can be constructed from virtually any base material, at any length scale and dimensionality.

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Hexagonal honeycomb structures are known for their high strength and low weight. We construct a new class of fractal-appearing cellular metamaterials by replacing each three-edge vertex of a base hexagonal network with a smaller hexagon and iterating this process. The mechanical properties of the structure after different orders of the iteration are optimized. We find that the optimal structure (with highest in-plane stiffness for a given weight ratio) is self-similar but requires higher order hierarchy as the density vanishes. These results offer insights into how incorporating hierarchy in the material structure can create low-density metamaterials with desired properties and function.

An approach to obtain analytical closed-form expressions for the macroscopic ‘buckling strength’ of various two-dimensional cellular structures is presented. The method is based on classical beam-column end-moment behaviour expressed in a matrix form. It is applied to sample honeycombs with square, triangular and hexagonal unit cells to determine their buckling strength under a general macroscopic in-plane stress state. The results were verified using finite-element Eigenvalue analysis.

Development of PSC in patients with UC might have a positive effect on colonic disease. Further investigations to evaluate the basis of this improvement are warranted.