Computer-assisted design defines a novel actuation principle based on liquid structures

.We present a framework for new structural metamaterials we refer to as liquid structures: a topology of bistable mechanisms made up of a high number of cells that are sub-mechanisms composed of pseudo-rigid links and joints. The name liquid structures comes from the similarities they present with the kinematics of the constant flow of incompressible fluids they are inspired to in a limited domain. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) is employed to define the layout of the cells through a two-step process where: (i) the node displacements are computed by the CFD tool itself; (ii) the kinematic synthesis of each cell is subsequently performed. We report an illustrative case and an example of application (a brake system) where star- and diamond-type cells are employed. Our proposal opens a new avenue of computer-assisted design of mechanical actuators