Study of two - dimensional Kirigami in different materials

Abstract: The mechanical properties of a 2D material can be altered with Kirigami, a Japanese paper cutting art. Such altered materials are called metamaterials – where a certain geometry is imposed on a material to change its material properties.This thesis documents the effects of a specific Kirigami pattern cut into a range of different 2D materials, such as plastic films or paper – the results of which will be used to evaluate the suitability of each material candidate to a product, the ‘IV strip’, designed and produced by Ortrud Medical AB.The strip contains a patterned ‘spring’ area, which has reduced stiffness due to the patterned defects imposed on it, and a force indication zone. The force indication zone will not be considered.The material selection study used a Pugh’s Evaluation matrix method to choose the best candidate. A few materials were chosen due their suitability in criteria such as robustness of results, tearing force and patient comfort. One material was selected for further experimentation due to its interesting stress/strain characteristics.A further study was then carried out to assess the possibility of tuning the pattern dimensions to alter the tensile properties of the metamaterial. This study includes both computational and experimental methods to verify the feasibility of a simulation model. The study found that it is possible to draw relationships between cut length and stiffness of the pattern. Whilst the computational and experimental results were similar for very small deformations, the FEM simulation struggles at higher deformations because of the lack of available material properties for the program input.