Transition Waves and Formation of Domain Walls in Multistable Mechanical Metamaterials

We experimentally, numerically, and analytically investigate transition waves in a mechanical metamaterial comprising a chain of tristable elements. Transition waves can be initiated from different stable phases within the highly tunable tristable energy landscape. These waves propagate via coupled translational and rotational motion that leads to formation of stationary domain walls if transition waves of incompatible type collide. Since domain formation and propagation is fully reversible, the unique nonlinear behavior could be exploited in new classes of reconfigurable metamaterials.