Thermomechanical buckling of tubularly chiral thermo-metamaterials

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the buckling response under thermal and mechanical excitations for the tubularly chiral thermo-metamaterials (TCTM). The proposed TCTM are designed using the material of thermoplastic polymers into the structure of chiral tubes. To characterize the temperature-responsive of the material, a general theoretical model that can predict the temperature-dependent Young’s modulus and yield strength is utilized. The Young’s modulus and Poisson’s ratio of the chiral tubes are theoretically derived to indicate the structural properties. The superposition method is applied to integrate the material and structural properties to model the equivalent material properties of the TCTM. The thermomechanical buckling response of the TCTM is theoretically analyzed using the equivalent material properties. The presented theoretical models are validated by comparing with the numerical simulations and existed researches, and the satisfactory consistencies are observed. Parametric studies are conducted to investigate the controllability of the Young’s modulus, Poisson’s ratio and buckling performance of the TCTM. The reported TCTM provide an effective approach to obtain highly maneuverable, thermomechanical response, which can be used to design advanced thermomechanical devices such as temperature warning devices.