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The design of architectured materials with bistable building blocks holds exciting possibilities. This new class of metamaterials exploits micro-level structural instabilities to obtain extraordinary physical and mechanical properties. Still, the dynamic behavior of these lattice structures is largely unexplored. Here, we study the dynamic response of a 1-D bistable lattice, i.e. a FPU chain with springs having a non-convex double-well energy potential. In addition to metamaterials, this model-problem is prototypical to a large number of systems, such as unfolding/refolding of proteins, crack propagation, plasticity, and mechanisms underlying martensitic phase transformations. We show that, depending only on the stiffness-ratio of the two energy wells of the bistable springs, the system exhibits two fundamentally different responses to impact; either the impact energy is (almost entirely) trapped in the form of large undulations of the first few springs, or the energy of the impact is (almost completely) transmitted along the chain in the form of a solitary wave that involves transition to the secondary energy-well and back. Focusing our attention to the latter, we reveal, based on analytical treatment and extensive numerical simulations, a universal feature of the solitary wave. Namely, the height of the solitary wave is indifferent to the energy barrier separating the two equilibria of the double well potential. This remarkable feature indicates that the spinodal region of the double-well potential affects the behavior only through its breadth.

We study solitary waves in a one-dimensional lattice of identical masses that are connected in series by nonlinear springs. The potential of each spring is nonconvex, where two disjoint convex regions, phase I and phase II, are separated by a concave, spinodal region. Consequently, the force-strain relation of the spring is nonmonotonous, which gives rise to a bistable behavior. Based on analytical treatment, with some approximations, combined with extensive numerical simulations, we are able to reveal important insights. For example, we find that the solitary-wave solution is indifferent to the energy barrier that separates the two energy wells associated with phase I and phase II, and that the shape of the wave can be described by means of merely two scalar properties of the potential of the springs, namely, the ratio of stiffness in phase II and phase I, and the ratio between the Maxwell's force and corresponding transition strain. The latter ratio provides a useful measure for the significance of the spinodal region. Linear stability of the solitary-wave solution is studied analytically using the Vakhitov-Kolokolov criterion applied to the approximate solutions obtained in the first part. These results are validated by numerical simulations. We find that the solitary-wave solution is stable provided that its velocity is higher than some critical value. It is shown that, practically, the solitary waves are stable for almost the entire range of possible wave velocities. This is also manifested in the interaction between two solitary waves or between a solitary wave and a wall (rigid boundary). Such interaction results in a minor change of height and shape of the solitary wave along with the formation of a trail of small undulations that follow the wave, as expected in a nonintegrable system. Even after a significant number of interactions the changes in the wave height and shape are minor, suggesting that the bistable chain may be a useful platform for delivering information over long distances, even concurrently with additional information (other solitary waves) passing through the chain.

The post-buckling behavior of a beam subjected to lateral constraints is of practical importance in a variety of applications, such as stent procedures, filopodia growth in living cells, endoscopic examination of internal organs, and deep drilling. Even though in reality the constraining surfaces are often deformable, the literature has focused mainly on rigid and fixed constraints. In this paper, we make a first step to bridge this gap through a theoretical and experimental examination of the post-buckling behavior of a beam constrained by a fixed wall and a springy wall, i.e. one that moves laterally against a spring. The response exhibited by the proposed system is much richer compared to that of the fixed-wall system, and can be tuned by choosing the spring stiffness. Based on small-deformation analysis, we obtained closed-form analytical solutions and quantitative insights. The accuracy of these results was examined by comparison to large-deformation analysis. We concluded that the closed-form solution of the small-deformation analysis provides an excellent approximation, except in the highest attainable mode. There, the system exhibits non-intuitive behavior and non-monotonous force–displacement relations that can only be captured by large-deformation theories. Although closed-form solutions cannot be derived for the large-deformation analysis, we were able to reveal general properties of the solution. In the last part of the paper, we present experimental results that demonstrate various features obtained from the theoretical analysis.

Attributed to its significance in a wide range of practical applications, the post-buckling behavior of a beam with lateral constraints has drawn much attention in the last few decades. Despite the fact that, in reality, the lateral constraints are often flexible or deformable, vast majority of studies have considered fixed and rigid lateral constraints. In this paper, we make a step toward bridging this gap by studying the post-buckling behavior of a planar beam that is laterally constrained by a deformable wall. Unfortunately, the interaction with a compliant wall prevents derivation of closed-form analytical solutions. Nevertheless, careful examination of the governing equations of a simplified model reveals general properties of the solution, and let us identify the key features that govern the behavior. Specifically, we construct universal “solution maps” that do not depend on the mode number and enable simple and easy prediction of the contact conditions and of the mode-switching force (the force at which the system undergoes instantaneous transition from one equilibrium configuration (or mode) to another). The predictions of the mathematical model are validated against finite element (FE) simulations.

A mechanized verification environment made up of theories over the deductive mechanized theorem prover PVS is presented, which allows taking advantage of the “convenient computations” method. This method reduces the conceptual difficulty of proving a given property for all the possible computations of a system by separating two different concerns: (1) proving that special convenient computations satisfy the property, and (2) proving that every computation is related to a convenient one by a relation which preserves the property. The approach is especially appropriate for applications in which the first concern is trivial once the second has been shown, e.g., where the specification itself is that every computation reduces to a convenient one. Two examples are the serializability of transactions in distributed databases, and sequential consistency of distributed shared memories. To reduce the repetition of effort, a clear separation is made between “infrastructural” theories to be supplied as a proof environment PVS library to users, and the specification and proof of particular examples. The provided infrastructure formally defines the method in its most general way. It also defines a computation model and a reduction relation—the equivalence of computations that differ only in the order of finitely many independent operations. One way to prove that this relation holds between every computation and some convenient one involves the definition of a measure function from computations into a well-founded set. Two possible default measures, which can be applied in many cases, are also defined in the infrastructure, along with useful lemmas that assist in their usage. We show how the proof environment can be used, by a step-by-step explanation of an application example.