A bistable honeycomb mechanical metamaterial with transformable Poisson's ratio and tunable vibration isolation properties

Abstract

With the increasing demand for vibration-isolation structures with tunable and multifunctional properties driven by the rapid development of complex engineering applications, metamaterials have emerged as promising candidates for this purpose owing to their extraordinary properties derived from their unique structural configurations. Owing to their unique deformation mechanisms, negative Poisson's ratio structures have been extensively studied in terms of vibration isolation and energy absorption; however, research on their performance tunability remains lacking. This paper describes a bistable honeycomb mechanical metamaterial (BHMM) consisting of cosine-shaped beams, which exhibits transformable Poisson's ratio and tunable vibration isolation properties. The proposed structure exhibited bistable properties, i.e., undergoing a configuration transition under external forces and retaining its existing configuration after the loading was removed. Furthermore, the two stable configurations exhibited distinctive elastic vibration characteristics, allowing the manipulation of elastic wave propagation on a subwavelength scale via local resonant mechanisms. Overall, this study presents a design methodology for multi-performance tunable metamaterials that satisfy the demands of the external environment. For example, the tunable vibration-isolation property of metamaterial makes it intriguing safety protection structures during crash events.