Two layers pantographs: A 2D continuum model accounting for the beams’ offset and relative rotations as averages in SO(3) Lie groups

In the problem of the synthesis of metamaterials, the pantographic architecture revealed remarkable potentialities. Indeed it allowed for the synthesis of second gradient 2D (nonlinear) continua: i.e. 2D shells whose deformation energy depends also on the second derivatives of displacements in the tangent directions to the reference configuration. Moreover, pantographic architecture seems to be able to produce metamaterials whose macroscopic elongations are large, albeit remaining in the elastic regime. The theoretically shown potentialities have started to become of ≫practical≪ interest thanks to a series of experiments, which were made possible by the recent 3D additive manufacturing. The actual construction of pantographic architecture has been based on the design of two arrays of beams interconnected by small cylinders, whose behavior can be modeled in different ways: if they are very short they can be regarded as clamps, while if they are short enough as elastic (or inelastic for large rotations) cylindrical hinges connecting the beams of different arrays. Otherwise, they must be modeled as elastic (or inelastic) elements allowing for relative rotations and displacements. In this paper, we focus on this particular case and we introduce, after a homogenization based on heuristic arguments, a 2D generalized continuum model whose kinematics is characterized by two placement and rotation fields (one for each array of beams) and whose deformation energy depends on relative displacements and rotations. The offset between the two beams arrays is proven to be an essential tool for defining effective invariant kinematical deformation measures. In facts, one wants to postulate a deformation energy for the introduced 2D generalized continuum which gives predictions in agreement with those given by the more refined 3D model where the pantographic architecture is described with its maximum geometric complexity and where the constituting material is assumed to be modelable as a standard 3D first gradient continuum. In the present paper, in order to arrive at the correct conjecture for the postulated energy, we consider the concept of averages of rotations in SO(3) Lie group. The used enriched kinematics is seen to be a possible alternative to the adoption of second gradient 2D models. Some rather surprising deformation processes are studied, where interesting non-symmetric post-buckling phenomena are observed in both the models used. Mentioned post-buckling has been observed experimentally.