Tuning Resonance Using Programmable Multistable Metastructures

Payloads mounted on a launch vehicle undergo harsh vibrations, necessitating careful design of the payload adapters to avoid resonance with structural modes of the launch vehicle. This study investigates programmable multistable metasheets and metastructures with discretely tunable resonant frequencies as a possible design paradigm for reconfigurable aerospace structures. The metasheet consists of arrays of elastically bistable domes. The metastructure comprises several dome-patterned metasheets connected by beams. Inversion of these bistable domes induces localized stress fields that alter the resonant frequencies of the metastructure. Modal analysis on a finite element model and experiments indicate that inverting domes located at the antinode of the fundamental mode is most effective in increasing the resonant frequencies of the metasheet or metastructure. Selective inversion of domes can also divide the metastructure into multiple domains, each with a different resonant frequency. These results highlight the potential of programmable multistable metastructures for vibration mitigation in a wide range of aerospace structures.