The aim of this paper is to find a computationally efficient and predictive model for the class of systems that we call ‘pantographic structures’. The interest in these materials was increased by the possibilities opened by the diffusion of technology of three-dimensional printing. They can be regarded, once choosing a suitable length scale, as families of beams (also called fibres) interconnected to each other by pivots and undergoing large displacements and large deformations. There are, however, relatively few ‘ready-to-use’ results in the literature of nonlinear beam theory. In this paper, we consider a discrete spring model for extensible beams and propose a heuristic homogenization technique of the kind first used by Piola to formulate a continuum fully nonlinear beam model. The homogenized energy which we obtain has some peculiar and interesting features which we start to describe by solving numerically some exemplary deformation problems. Furthermore, we consider pantographic structures, find the corresponding homogenized second gradient deformation energies and study some planar problems. Numerical solutions for these two-dimensional problems are obtained via minimization of energy and are compared with some experimental measurements, in which elongation phenomena cannot be neglected.

A nonlinear two-dimensional (2D) continuum with a latent internal structure is introduced as a coarse model of a plane network of beams which, in turn, is assumed as a model of a pantographic structure made up by two families of equispaced beams, superimposed and connected by pivots. The deformation measures of the beams of the network and that of the 2D body are introduced and the former are expressed in terms of the latter by making some kinematical assumptions. The expressions for the strain and kinetic energy densities of the network are then introduced and given in terms of the kinematic quantities of the 2D continuum. To account for the modelling abilities of the 2D continuum in the linear range, the eigenmode and eigenfrequencies of a given specimen are determined. The buckling and post-buckling behaviour of the same specimen, subjected to two different loading conditions are analysed as tests in the nonlinear range. The problems have been solved numerically by means of the COMSOL Multiphysics finite element software.