Auxetic Metamaterial Development With Commercial Finite Element Tools

Abstract

Abstract Metamaterials exhibit unique properties that are often not found in nature, making them advantageous in challenging engineering applications. These materials, however, are extremely difficult and time consuming to design, typically requiring custom algorithm development for a specific application. For metamaterials to be more readily created and implemented, an easily accessible design method that uses commercially available tools is needed. With the integration of optimization packages, commercially available finite element analysis software now presents an opportunity for the constrained design of metamaterials. This work investigates using topology optimization (TO) capabilities within commercial finite element analysis (FEA) software to create a methodology for targeted metamaterial design. This study focuses on auxetic materials, those exhibiting negative Poisson’s ratio, as an example case. An overview of the design process and topology optimization objectives, constraints, and boundary conditions will be provided, as well as a description of the challenges associated with utilizing a commercial FEA method.