  In this work, we study the mechanics of metamaterial sheets inspired by the
pellicle of Euglenids. They are composed of interlocking elastic rods which can
freely slide along their edges. We characterize the kinematics and the
mechanics of these structures using the special Cosserat theory of rods and by
assuming axisymmetric deformations of the tubular assembly. Through an
asymptotic expansion, we investigate both structures that comprise a discrete
number of rods and the limit case of a sheet composed by infinitely many rods.
We apply our theoretical framework to investigate the stability of these
structures in the presence of an axial load. Through a linear analysis, we
compute the critical buckling force for both the discrete and the continuous
case. For the latter, we also perform a numerical post-buckling analysis,
studying the non-linear evolution of the bifurcation through finite elements
simulations.
