Highly multistable composite surfaces

Novel continuous composite surfaces are presented which possess a high degree of multistability. Inspired by the illustrative behaviour of a multistable analog model, we first show how two identical bistable composite shells with tailored asymmetric bistability may be connected to form a continuous quadstable surface. The concept is then extended to surfaces composed of three and by extension more identical bistable shells connected in series in order to achieve additional stable states. The multistable behaviour of these surfaces is investigated by finite element analysis and verified by experimental work.