Kirigami, the creative art of paper cutting, is a promising paradigm for mechanical metamaterials. However, to make kirigami-inspired structures a reality requires controlling the topology of kirigami to achieve connectivity and rigidity. We address this question by deriving the maximum number of cuts (minimum number of links) that still allow us to preserve global rigidity and connectivity of the kirigami. A deterministic hierarchical construction method yields an efficient topological way to control both the number of connected pieces and the total degrees of freedom. A statistical approach to the control of rigidity and connectivity in kirigami with random cuts complements the deterministic pathway, and shows that both the number of connected pieces and the degrees of freedom show percolation transitions as a function of the density of cuts (links). Together, this provides a general framework for the control of rigidity and connectivity in planar kirigami. 
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                            Explosive rigidity percolation in kirigami
                        
                    
    
            Controlling the connectivity and rigidity of kirigami, i.e. the process of cutting paper to deploy it into an articulated system, is critical in the manifestations of kirigami in art, science and technology, as it provides the resulting metamaterial with a range of mechanical and geometric properties. Here, we combine deterministic and stochastic approaches for the control of rigidity in kirigami using the power of k choices, an approach borrowed from the statistical mechanics of explosive percolation transitions. We show that several methods for rigidifying a kirigami system by incrementally changing either the connectivity or the rigidity of individual components allow us to control the nature of the explosive transition by a choice of selection rules. Our results suggest simple lessons for the design of mechanical metamaterials. 
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                            - Award ID(s):
- 1922321
- PAR ID:
- 10465074
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Proceedings of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences
- Volume:
- 479
- Issue:
- 2271
- ISSN:
- 1364-5021
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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