ELEMENT WITH VARIABLE STIFFNESS CONTROLLED BY NEGATIVE PRESSURE

摘要

Element (1) with variable stiffness controlled by negative pressure, the element comprising:
- a gas-tight envelope (10);
- a plurality of flexible layers (30, 30a, 30b, 30c, 30d, 30e) in the envelope, each layer (30, 30a, 30b, 30c, 30d, 30e) having a first surface (31, 41) and a second surface (32, 42); and,
- a valve (20) adapted to evacuate the interior of the envelope (10);
characterised in that:
- the first and second surfaces (31, 41, 32, 42) of two adjacent layers have a friction coefficient between each other which is higher than 0.5;
- the first and second surfaces (31, 41, 32, 42) of two adjacent layers have adhesion properties, such that a normal force per unit area of below 0.07 N/mm 2 is required to separate them and/or the energy per unit area required to separate them in normal direction is below 6.7 J/m 2 .