The subject of mechanical metamaterials has been gaining significant attention, however, their widespread application is still halted. Such materials are usually considered as stand-alone, vis-à-vis all characteristic length scales being associated solely with geometry of material itself. In this work we propose novel application of mechanical metamaterials as interface regions joining two materials with potential of replacing bulk adhesives. This idea leads into paradigm shifts for both metamaterials and adhesive joints. In specific, we outline methodology for testing and evaluating confined lattice materials within fracture mechanics framework. The theoretical and numerical approaches are inter-winded, revealing a set of critical parameters that needs to be considered during design process. Lattices that are stretching and bending dominated are explored and failure maps are proposed, indicating susceptibility to a certain failure mode depending on level of confinement and characteristic dimension of each lattice’s unit cells.

机械超材料这一课题受到了广泛关注，但其广泛应用仍处于停滞状态。此类材料通常被视为独立的，相对于仅与材料本身的几何形状相关的所有特征长度尺度。在这项工作中，我们提出了机械超材料的新应用，作为连接两种材料的界面区域，具有替代大量粘合剂的潜力。这个想法导致了超材料和粘合接头的范式转变。具体而言，我们概述了在断裂力学框架内测试和评估受限晶格材料的方法。理论和数值方法相互交织，揭示了设计过程中需要考虑的一组关键参数。