Fig. 1: Jamming of interleaved papers for stiffness variation and the implementation of a tunable buckling design strategy.

a An exploded-view schematic illustration showing an interleaved assembly on an elastomeric substrate, anchored at both ends. b Upon application of vacuum, the interleaved zigzag strips yield high stiffness through friction, increasing tensile rigidity of the interleaved assembly. At atmospheric pressure, the interleaved zigzag strips can easily slide over each other. Left, with a mass of 100 g attached to its end, the jammed interleaved assembly almost maintained its initial length, while the unjammed interleaved assembly was easily stretched. Right, the tensile tests show that the jammed interleaved assembly (at vacuum pressure of 60 kPa) is more than 30 time stiffer than the unjammed counterpart. c Tensile rigidity versus applied vacuum pressure for interleaved assemblies with varying plies. The data are presented as mean ± s.d. of 3 independent measurements. d Schematic illustration of the refreshable buckling behavior enabled by jamming induced tunable tensile rigidity. Left, upon application of vacuum, the stretched state of the interleaved assembly is locked without external loadings. Right, varying the temporal instant to jam the interleaved assembly to form a stiff strip on a strain-releasing soft substrate system, different buckling height are achieved. The continuum energy input is not required to maintain the buckled height and the buckled strip will recover to flat configuration when vacuum is released. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.