Kagomé plate structures for actuation (Q1434658)

The authors introduce the Kagomé truss as an actuating plane into a sandwich plate structure with the potential for achieving arbitrary non-planar shapes. The primary feature of the weld-joint Kagomé truss for actuation applications is its ability to deform as an effective medium with arbitrary in-plane strains against the minimal bending resistance of the joints. Other properties that make it especially effective for such applications are its isotropic stiffness, its substantial, near-isotropic in-plane yield strength, and its high local buckling strength.