Hybrid chiral structures: a novel constitutive modelling methodology for design

Chiral structures have drawn great attention in the engineering community due to their ability to effectively redistribute applied load, thereby exhibiting outstanding mechanical performance. However, their geometry and complicated mechanical responses hinder their efficient design. This work proposes a novel constitutive modeling approach for chiral structures that directly correlates the applied external load with the resulting rotation angle, facilitating the clear identification of the linear elastic response regime. In addition, a chiral structure with hybrid materials is proposed to demonstrate the mechanical performance, such as maximum load capacity and specific elastic energy absorption, based on the proposed constitutive model for chiral structures. Validated by experimental and finite element simulation results, the proposed constitutive modeling method provides new insights for the efficient design of chiral structures.