We present a theoretical framework for new structural metamaterials we refer to as liquid structures: a topology of bistable mechanisms made up of a high number of cells that are sub-mechanisms composed of pseudo-rigid links and joints. The name liquid structures comes from the similarities they present with the kinematics of the constant flow of incompressible fluids they are inspired by in a limited domain. The layout of the cells are obtained through a two-step process where: (i) the node displacements are computed by means of a Computational Fluid Dynamics tool feeding and (ii) the kinematic synthesis of each cell that is subsequently performed. We report two illustrative examples where star- and diamond-type cells are employed. The paper concludes with a detailed discussion about future theoretical and manufacturing challenges arising from this new metamaterial paradigm.

我们提出了一种新的结构超材料的理论框架，我们将其称为液体结构：一种双稳态机制的拓扑结构，该机制由大量的单元组成，这些单元是由准刚性链接和接头组成的子机制。名称液体结构来自他们在有限范围内受到启发的不可压缩流体恒流运动学方面的相似性。单元的布局是通过两步过程获得的，其中：（i）节点位移通过计算流体动力学工具进给计算，并且（ii）随后进行的每个单元的运动学合成。我们报告两个说明性的示例，其中采用星形和菱形细胞。本文最后详细讨论了这种新的超材料范式带来的未来理论和制造挑战。