On the reusable compressive behavior of multi-directional auxetic origami metamaterials

Abstract

Origami metamaterials exhibit abnormal mechanical properties through artful structural design. To further explore the mechanical behavior of reentrant metamaterials, a multi-directional auxetic origami metamaterial (AOMM) was designed, and its negative Poisson’s ratio effect was analyzed through the diagram of load bearing and deformation. Theoretical models related to geometric parameters, relative density, folding rate, equivalent elasticity and load plateau were established to reveal the deformation transformation mechanism, and the influence of size parameters on the equivalent elastic constants was drawn. Using thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) as the substrate, two types of multi-directional AOMMs were fabricated by 3D printing, and quasi-static compression experiments were performed. The results show that the TPU AOMMs has a reusable compressive capacity, whose compressive mechanical behaviors are mainly contributed by the buckling instability and large deformation of sidewall. There is a coupling effect between the cross connection boundaries, which results in the difference in mechanical properties of AOMM with different geometric sizes. The prediction results of relative density, load plateau and yield strain through equivalent theories approximate that of experimental results. Simultaneously, finite element analyses were conducted, which agrees well with the experiments. These foundings may provide reference for the design and application of novel auxetic or origami metamaterials.