MECHANICAL ANALYSIS OF TOROFLUX

The toroflux, as a fancy toy, involves rich mechanical behaviors. In the production process of the toroflux, the prestressed technique is used to increase some bending deformation energy internally. Due to the presence of the bending deformation energy, a folded toroflux under external disturbances can be unfolded as a Chinese lantern structure in a stable equilibrium state. And conversely, an unfolded toroflux driven by an external force moment can go into another stable equilibrium state, i.e., a folded ring. This makes a toroflux easy to be carried in the folded state and with a lightweight structure space in the unfolded state. Moreover, a toroflux around an arm or a long strip, like a silvery bubble that is flowing, moves from high to low due to the effect of the gravity. Based on the energy theory, this paper analyzes a series of mechanical behaviors of the toroflux in the folded and unfolded states.