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This paper covers deployable systems assembled from trapezium plates. When the plate package is unwrapped, a net shell with six loop cells is formed. It is proved that additional degrees of freedom appear in case of certain correlation between the sizes of the six loop faces. When thin plates were used, the continuum approximation of the deployed net could be interpreted as a shell with a wide variety of local curvatures. Kinematics of the continuum model is analyzed by the method of Cartan moving hedron. Mechanical behavior of continuum nets is studied when cylindrical hinges between the plates are completed of shape memory plastic materials. The paper researches into shell transformations from one stable form to the other. Various practical applications of the continuum nets are demonstrated.

The paper demonstrates a fractal system of thin plates connected with hinges. The system can be studied using the methods of mechanics of solids with internal degrees of freedom. The structure is deployable — initially it is close to a small diameter one-dimensional manifold that occupies significant volume after deployment. The geometry of solids is studied using the method of the moving hedron. The relations enabling to define the geometry of the introduced manifolds are derived based on the Cartan structure equations. The proof substantially makes use of the fact that the fractal consists of thin plates that are not long compared to the sizes of the system. The mechanics is described for the solids with rigid plastic hinges between the plates, when the hinges are made of shape memory material. Based on the ultimate load theorems, estimates are performed to specify internal pressure that is required to deploy the package into a three-dimensional structure, and heat input needed to return the system into its initial state.

This paper covers deployable systems assembled from a set of trapezium plates. The middles lines of the plates represent a plane curve in the original position of the package. It is proved that when the package of thin plates is unwrapped, a surface approximating a shell of nearly any curvature is formed. Kinematics of the continual model is analyzed by the method of Cartan moving hedron, extending the results the authors published earlier. Various applications of rotating shells are shown. Experimental models of deployable latticed systems are demonstrated.

This paper studies solids with internal degrees of freedom using the method of Cartan moving hedron. Strain compatibility conditions are derived in the form of structure equations for manifolds. Constitutive relations are reviewed and ultimate load theorems are proved for rigid plastic solids with internal degrees of freedom. It is demonstrated how the above theorems can be applied in behavior analysis of rigid plastic continual shells of shape memory materials. The ultimate loads are estimated for rotating shells under external forces and in case of shape recovery from heating.