Negative Poisson's Ratio Research Articles

Exploring the dependencies of Poisson's ratio in auxetic structures

AbstractAuxetic materials are mostly known for their negative Poisson's ratio, a parameter used to describe the deformation behavior of structures. This ratio serves a similar role as a material constant, detailing behavior on a microscopic scale. However, the deformation behavior of complex auxetic structures cannot be described completely using the classical Poisson's ratio approach. While it may suffice to describe auxetic behavior in foams or crystals, it fails for larger scales like the auxetic lattice structures, discussed in this study. To address this limitation, an extension to the classical Poisson's ratio is proposed to better describe the behavior of such structures. The developed method shows the different dependencies, namely the directional dependency, the frequency dependency and the position dependency of auxetic unit cells.

High-Performance Stretchable Strain Sensors Based on Auxetic Fabrics for Human Motion Detection.

Wearable strain sensors play a pivotal role in real-time human motion detection and health monitoring. Traditional fabric-based strain sensors, typically with a positive Poisson's ratio, face challenges in maintaining sensitivity and comfort during human motion due to conflicting resistance changes in different strain directions. In this work, high-performance stretchable strain sensors are developed based on graphene-modified auxetic fabrics (GMAF) for human motion detection in smart wearable devices. The proposed GMAF sensors, with a negative Poisson's ratio achieved through commercially available warp-knitting technology, exhibit an 8-fold improvement in sensitivity compared to conventional plain fabric sensors. The unique auxetic fabric structure enhances sensitivity by synchronizing resistance changes in both wale and course directions. The GMAF sensors demonstrate excellent washability, showing only slight degradation in auxeticity and an acceptable increase in resistance after 10 standard wash cycles. The GMAF sensors maintain stability under different strain levels and various motion frequencies, emphasizing their dynamic performance. The sensors exhibit superior conformability to joint movements, which effectively monitor a full range of motions, including joint bending, sports activities, and subtle actions like coughing and swallowing. The research underscores a promising approach to achieve industrial-scale production of wearable sensors with improved performance and comfort through fabric structure design.

Recent Advances in Wearable Electromechanical Sensors Based on Auxetic Textiles

AbstractTextile‐based electromechanical sensors are increasingly used as wearable sensors for various applications, such as health monitoring and human‐machine interfaces. These sensors are becoming increasingly popular as they offer a comfortable and conformable sensing platform and possess properties that can be tuned by selecting different fiber materials, yarn‐spinning techniques, or fabric fabrication methods. Although it is still in its early stages, recent attempts have been made to introduce auxeticity to textile sensors to enhance their sensitivity. Having a negative Poisson's ratio, i.e., undergoing expansion laterally when subjected to tensile forces and contraction laterally under compressive forces, makes them distinct from conventional sensors with positive Poisson's ratio. This unique feature has demonstrated great potential in enhancing the performance of electromechanical sensors. This review presents an overview of electromechanical sensors based on auxetic textiles (textiles made from auxetic materials and/or non‐auxetic materials but with auxetic structures), specifically focusing on how the unique auxetic deformation impacts sensing performance. Sensors based on different working mechanisms, including piezoelectric, triboelectric, piezoresistive, and piezocapacitive, are covered. It is envisioned that incorporating auxeticity and electromechanical sensing capabilities into textiles will significantly advance wearable technology, leading to new sensors for health monitoring, fitness tracking, and smart clothing.

Dynamic compliance penis enlargement patch

Men are particularly sensitive to penis size, especially those with a deformed or injured penis. This can lead to a strong desire for penis enlargement surgery. Given the ethical sensitivities of the penis, penile implants need to be developed with both efficacy and safety. In this study, a polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) patch for penile enlargement prepared via cyclic freeze‒thaw cycles and alkaline treatment. The PVA hydrogels treated with 5 M NaOH had the best mechanical properties and stability. A negative Poisson's ratio structure is incorporated into the design of the enlargement patch, which allows it to conform well to the deformation of the penis. In rabbit models, the enlarged patches can effectively enlarge the penis without degradation or fibrosis while maintaining long-term stability in vivo. This innovation not only provides a safe option for patients in need of penile enlargement but also promises to make a broader contribution to the field of dynamic tissue repair.

Negative Poisson's ratio can enhance stability of layered composite structures

Composite laminates with negative Posson's ratios (i.e., auxetic composite laminates) were experimentally found to demonstrate a three-fold increase in buckling strength under uniaxial compression in comparison with the equivalent non-auxetic ones. To investigate whether the enhancement is genuinely due to the negative Poisson's ratio (i.e., the auxeticity) or merely caused by the concurrent change in the bending stiffness matrix as the composite layup changes, a novel monoclinic plate-based composite laminate approach is proposed, which for the first time, allows to isolate the auxeticity effect from the concurrent change of the stiffness matrix. Results provided theoretical proof that the auxeticity plays an active role in enhancing the critical buckling strength of layered composite structure. However, such a role is dynamically sensitive to elements in the bending stiffness matrix, especially the bending-twisting ratio and the anisotropy of the bending stiffness between the longitudinal and lateral directions. Insights are expected to provide guidance in exploiting negative Poisson's ratio for improving the stability of layered composite structures.

Experimental behavior and fracture prediction of a novel high-strength and high-toughness steel subjected to tension and shear loading tests

In this study, laboratory testing and numerical simulation methods are used to investigate the mechanical behavior and perform fracture prediction of a novel high-strength and high-toughness steel with a negative Poisson's ratio (NPR) effect under combined tensile-shear loading conditions. A test device capable of meeting different tensile-shear combination test angles is designed and manufactured, wherein the mechanical experiments on the NPR (Negative Poisson's Ratio) steel specimens are carried out at various testing angles. Q235 steel and MG400 steel are used as experimental control groups. The results show that the mechanical deformation of NPR steel is significantly better than that of Q235 steel and MG400 steel. Its tensile-shear test curve has no yield plateau and it has quasi-ideal elastic-plastic mechanical properties. The loading direction gradually changes from tension-dominated to shear-dominated as the tension-shear angle increases, and the strength and deformation of the specimens show a decreasing trend. Based on the laboratory test results, a finite element numerical model of NPR steel is established. A series of numerical simulations are carried out under the conditions of different tension and shear angles and the average stress triaxiality and fracture strain data are obtained. The fracture data of NPR steel are fitted using the Johnson-Cook fracture criterion, and the Johnson-Cook fracture parameters under the tensile-shear test conditions of NPR steel are thus obtained. The numerical simulation verifies that the fracture model can accurately predict the tensile-shear fracture behavior of NPR steel.

Mechanical Properties of Re-Entrant Hybrid Honeycomb Structures for Morphing Wings.

The exceptional energy absorption, deformability, and tuneable Poisson's ratio properties of negative Poisson's ratio (NPR) honeycomb biomimetic structures make them highly suitable for applications in aerospace, medical, and acoustic stealth industries. The present study proposes a re-entrant hybrid honeycomb (REHH) structure comprising a re-entrant octagonal unit cell and a re-entrant hexagonal unit cell. Theoretical models of the in-plane elastic modulus and Poisson's ratio are established based on beam theory, and these models are validated through finite element (FE) simulations and tensile experiments conducted on the REHH samples. The influence of the cell geometry parameters on the in-plane elastic behaviours is investigated. The results indicate that the NPR performance of the REHH structure exhibits superior deformation capability compared with the four-point star hybrid honeycomb (FSHH) structure. The experimental REHH structure samples exhibit significant tensile displacement capabilities in the x-direction.

Mechanical properties of a novel negative Poisson's ratio gradient structure

A novel cellular structure is proposed based on bionic structure with negative Poisson's ratio characteristic, and the cell is periodically expanded in the in-plane direction to create a new honeycomb structure. The influence of gradient changes of the structural parameters on the load-bearing capacity and damping characteristics of the structure is investigated through a combination method of finite element numerical simulations and experiments. The results indicate that the concentric gradient arrangement of cell wall thickness and angle parameters, and the symmetrical gradient arrangement of cell height, wall thickness and angle parameters have the most significant influence on the static bearing capacity of the structure. In contrast, the gradient arrangement under the corner circle diameter has minimal effect on the static bearing capacity of the structure. Under the same conditions, the peak values of the transmissibility of C2 (large angle at constraint end and loading end, and smaller angle in the middle) and C3 structures (angle gradually increases from the loading end to the constraint end) are significantly reduced between the frequency 2 Hz and 1024 Hz. The peak values of the transmissibility of the structures C2 and C3 are respectively decreased by 20% and 25% compared to that of the non-gradient structure. This shows that the vibration damping effect of these two structures is better. The structure with the gradient change and the structure without the gradient change of the new honeycomb structure can both achieve certain vibration reduction and isolation from the middle to high frequency range.

Spatial tuning of the positive and negative Poisson's ratio of metamaterials through gradient design

The design of negative Poisson's ratio materials has received much attention in recent years. However, there are few focus on tuning spatial negative and positive Poisson's ratio behavior, which has potential applications in engineering such as mimicking the mechanics behavior of natural tissue. In this study, a two-dimensional rectangular perforated material is used as an example, and the positive-negative Poisson's ratio (PPR-NPR) behavior is successfully obtained by gradient design. Deep learning combined with meta-heuristic algorithms is used to material design for targeted deformation behaviors, enabling precise control over material deformation, customization of constitutive models, and constrained single-objective material optimization. The gradient design is expected to be extended to different configurations to realize the tunable positive-negative Poisson's ratio of the materials, which will provide broader possibilities for the design and fabrication of new negative Poisson's ratio materials.

A new seismic metamaterial design with ultra-wide low-frequency wave suppression band utilizing negative Poisson's ratio material

In this paper, we present a new seismic metamaterial (SM) for the suppression of Lamb waves and surface waves utilizing the negative Poisson's ratio (NPR) foam. The periodic cell of the metamaterial is composed of a square cylinder made of steel in the center and NPR foam connecters at the corners. Utilizing the unique resonance properties of the NPR material, an ultra-low-frequency broadband wave suppression is achieved. First, the characteristics of bandgaps (BGs) of the proposed structure with different materials were analyzed using the finite element (FE) method. It shows that the application of the NPR foam can significantly broaden the BGs compared with the case using traditional rubber. The vibration modes were analyzed to investigate the mechanism of BG generation, and the results show that the broad BG is achieved via the unique local resonance mechanism of the NPR foam. Subsequently, the frequency-domain analysis was carried out to verify the shielding effect of the designed SM on Lamb waves, using a periodic structure consisting of 10 × 6 unit cells. It shows that the designed SM can effectively attenuate Lamb waves in the range of 3–44 Hz with attenuation up to −590 dB at 32 Hz. A parametric analysis shows that the NPR foam with small thickness, high modulus, low mass density, and low Poisson's ratio can broaden the first complete BG. In addition, the acoustic cone method was combined with the frequency-domain analysis to calculate the BGs of the proposed structure against the surface wave, using a periodic structure consisting of 20 unit cells. It shows that the surface wave can be significantly attenuated within the BG. Finally, real seismic excitations were applied for time-domain analyses, and the simulation results show that the proposed structure can effectively shield the low-frequency seismic surface waves in the range of 0.1–20 Hz. The design scheme proposed in this paper is simple in structure and easy to implement, and is believed to possess bright application potentials in seismic protection.

Investigation on the bending performance of sandwich beams with re-entrant diamond auxetic core

ABSTRACT Auxetic metamaterials, characterised by a negative Poisson’s ratio (NPR), exhibit unique mechanical properties where they expand under tension and contract under compression. These structures hold significant potential with applications spanning various industries such as biomedical, construction, sports, aerospace and defence. The re-entrant diamond auxetic metamaterial represents a modified unit cell structure designed to mitigate the bending-dominated failure observed in conventional re-entrant structures. Notably, this modification demonstrates advantages, particularly in uni-axial compression scenarios. However, its performance concerning energy absorption under bending loads has not been explored until now. This study examines the bending behaviour of a re-entrant diamond auxetic metamaterial, both as a core and in sandwich configurations. The samples are fabricated using additive manufacturing (3D printing) and compression moulded glass-epoxy composite skins are added to these cores. Experimental assessments are conducted to evaluate bending performance, facilitated by advanced digital image correlation (DIC) techniques for real-time displacement measurement on the sample surface. The results reveal remarkable 14, 11 and 4-times improvement in energy absorption, specific energy absorption and failure displacement in the sandwich construction compared to the core configuration. Additionally, the study investigates the impact of eccentric loading on the flexural performance of the re-entrant diamond auxetic metamaterial.

Compressive and flexural responses of auxetic sandwich panels with modified re-entrant honeycomb cores

Auxetic structures possess negative Poisson’s ratio (NPR). They exhibit enhanced indentation resistance, synclastic deformation, high fracture toughness and high energy absorption. Several sorts of auxetic structures exist, such as re-entrant, arrowhead, chiral, etc. The re-entrant structure is the most common sort of auxetic structures. This paper investigates the mechanical behavior of the re-entrant auxetic structure using experimental and numerical methods. Two modified re-entrant topologies are proposed based on the original (conventional) re-entrant topology. Using these modified topologies, two re-entrant auxetic sandwich structures are designed and 3D printed using fused deposition modeling (FDM) out of polylactic acid (PLA). Conducting compression, three and four-point bending tests, the compressive and flexural performance of the two new re-entrant auxetic sandwich structures is studied and compared with the original (conventional) re-entrant structure. More specifically, Poisson’s ratio, compressive modulus, flexural stiffness and maximum loads of the structures are focused and studied. The mechanical properties of auxetic sandwich structures are improved using modified topologies. The new re-entrant auxetic sandwich structures show 11% higher normalized compressive modulus and 9% higher normalized flexural stiffness than the original re-entrant structure.

Excellent Hole Mobility and Out-of-Plane Piezoelectricity in X-Penta-Graphene (X = Si or Ge) with Poisson's Ratio Inversion.

Recently, the application of two-dimensional (2D) piezoelectric materials has been seriously hindered because most of them possess only in-plane piezoelectricity but lack out-of-plane piezoelectricity. In this work, using first-principles calculation, by atomic substitution of penta-graphene (PG) with tiny out-of-plane piezoelectricity, we design and predict stable 2D X-PG (X = Si or Ge) semiconductors with excellent in-plane and out-of-plane piezoelectricity and extremely high in-plane hole mobility. Among them, Ge-PG exhibits better performance in all aspects with an in-plane strain piezoelectric coefficient d11 = 8.43 pm/V, an out-of-plane strain piezoelectric coefficient d33 = -3.63 pm/V, and in-plane hole mobility μh = 57.33 × 103 cm2 V-1 s-1. By doping Si and Ge atoms, the negative Poisson's ratio of PG approaches zero and reaches a positive value, which is due to the gradual weakening of the structure's mechanical strength. The bandgaps of Si-PG (0.78 eV) and Ge-PG (0.89 eV) are much smaller than that of PG (2.20 eV), by 2.82 and 2.47 times, respectively. This indicates that the substitution of X atoms can regulate the bandgap of PG. Importantly, the physical mechanism of the out-of-plane piezoelectricity of these monolayers is revealed. The super-dipole-moment effect proposed in the previous work is proved to exist in PG and X-PG, i.e., it is proved that their out-of-plane piezoelectric stress coefficient e33 increases with the super-dipole-moment. The e33-induced polarization direction is also consistent with the super-dipole-moment direction. X-PG is predicted to have prominent potential for nanodevices applied as electromechanical coupling systems: wearable, ultra-thin devices; high-speed electronic transmission devices; and so on.

Nonlinear dynamic study of FG-GFRC-NPR structures

The functionally graded glass fibre-reinforced polymer composite(FG-GFRC) is one of the contemporary sophisticated materials that may be employed for a variety of technical purposes. The shock absorption capacity of FG-GFRP laminates can be improved by incorporating auxetic property (i.e., negative Poisson's ratio NPR) in the structures, which can be attained by a particular stacking sequence of glass fibres (GF) and a different percentage of GF distribution along the thickness direction within the FG-GFRP structure. The nonlinear dynamic behaviour of such structures must be investigated. The clamped-clamped FG-GFRP-NPR structure is stimulated under a uniform transverse load distribution in the current work. Based on the higher-order shear deformation theory (SDT), the displacement field and nonlinear stress–strain relationship are derived. The nonlinear differential equation with cubic non-linear components were derived using Hamilton’s principle and transformed using Galerkin’s technique and obtained governing equation of motion. MATLAB has been used to conduct all numerical simulations. A time series, a phase picture and a Poincare diagram (PCM) were generated to characterize the vibration behavior of such auxetic structures.

Energy absorption characteristics of hybrid hierarchical chiral structures based on symmetrical design under in-plane impact

Drawing inspiration from hierarchical structures, axisymmetric design layouts were introduced, and hybrid hierarchical chiral structures (HHCS) based on four- and six-chiral structures were proposed. The performance of HHCSs under in-plane compression is investigated using finite element methods and experiments. The effect of different loading conditions on the behavior of HHCSs is discussed. Under low-speed impact, HHCSs exhibit a negative Poisson’s ratio (NPR) effect, which diminishes as the velocity increases and the inertial effects gradually become dominant. The parameter study shows that increasing the connectivity between subunits and the thickness can enhance the energy absorption capacity of the structure while maintaining a good NPR effect. The conventional inclined deformation mode of the chiral structure is improved by the axisymmetric layout, which effectively improves the energy absorption.

An investigation of PLLA hybrid stent design to overcome thick strut problems

Biodegradable polymer-based stents simultaneously provide scaffolding, drug release, and biodegradation to eliminate chronic inflammation. The most important factors hindering the wide use of these stents are thick struts, low radial strength, and large footprints formed on the inner wall of the artery as a result of stent expansion. Negative Poisson’s Ratio (NPR), also known as the Auxetic design, has shown great potential to provide radial strength with less strut thickness. However, a detailed mechanical evaluation proving improvement in stent performance parameters is not available in the literature. In this study, the performance parameters of two stent designs based on the Auxetic geometry with PLLA were analyzed under in-vivo conditions using an in-silico model consisting of the artery, crimper, and expander FE model. For this purpose, one design utilizes Auxetic unit cell, which is already available in the literature, while the other uses a newly proposed Hybrid design combining Auxetic and Chevron type geometries. Additionally, a specially heated coaxial balloon-catheter system was considered as a deployment tool between glass transition and body temperature, and carried out for thin-strut stent simulations. The Hybrid design is shown to resolve the foreshortening problem of Auxetic design and collapse pressure of commercial PLLA stents. In this present study validates the potential of Hybrid design to overcome problems for polymer-based biodegradable stents.

Auxetic Structure Inspired Microneedle Arrays for Minimally Invasive Drug Delivery

Abstract Microneedle arrays (MNAs) are promising drug delivery tools aimed at lowering invasiveness and pain. Many design parameters are optimized to lower penetration force in MNAs. An important parameter is the microneedle width as that relates directly to the force required to penetrate the skin, the lower the width, the lower the penetration force needed. This research explored the use of auxetic structures known for having negative Poisson's ratio in the design of MNAs. As the needles are inserted, the compression on the needles causes their radial dimension to shrink instead of increasing as in positive Poisson's ratio structures. This study has shown a 25% reduction in penetration force due to using an auxetic structure instead of a conventional nonauxetic structure. The research employs additive manufacturing and soft molding to fabricate the MNAs. This study emphasizes the viability of using auxetic structures in MNA design.

Compensation mechanics application of NPR anchor cable to large deformation tunnel in soft rock

NPR anchor cable is a new type of support material with negative Poisson's ratio effect, which is widely used in mine support because of its superb compensating mechanical effect. In order to study more deeply the support effect of NPR anchor cable in soft rock large deformation tunnel, indoor test, numerical simulation and field monitoring were used to study the strong weathering carbonaceous slate tunnel in Min County. The study shows that NPR anchor cable has extraordinary compensating mechanical behavior for soft rock large deformation tunnel, which can control the deformation of tunnel surrounding rock below 300 mm and keep the constant resistance value around 350 kN, which has obvious effect on the control of broken rock. To provide a basis for other research on support for large deformation tunnels in soft rock.

Strain-independent auxetic metamaterials inspired from atomic lattice

Metamaterials with strain-independent negative Poisson's ratio (NPR) and Young's modulus are essential for the applications with extreme loading conditions. However, strain-independent auxetic metamaterials are rare, and there is a lack of design inspiration for them. In this paper, we present a novel auxetic metamaterial inspired from the atomic lattice with strain-independent NPR. The novel NPR properties due to the unique atomic lattice keep valid when scaling up by 6 orders of magnitude to macroscopic metamaterials, with the similar deformation mechanism. The NPR and Young's modulus keep constant with increasing loading strain. These strain-independent auxetic effects are robust with various designable geometric parameters in wide ranges. Furthermore, the geometric parameters optimization for the auxetic metamaterial is conducted through developing the matrix displacement method. An optimized metamaterial is achieved with 3 times enhancement of auxeticity and 2 orders of magnitude enhancement of Young's modulus, compared to the initio architectures. This work provides a wealth of inspirations from atomic lattice in nature to design strain-independent macroscale auxetic metamaterials.

Coupling Chiral Cuboids with Wholly Auxetic Response.

Auxetic materials have been extensively studied for their design, fabrication and mechanical properties. These material systems exhibit unique mechanical characteristics such as high impact resistance, shear strength, and energy absorption capacity. Most existing auxetic materials are two-dimensional (2D) and demonstrate half-auxetic behavior, characterized by a negative Poisson's ratio when subjected to either tensile or compressive forces. Here, we present novel three-dimensional (3D) auxetic mechanical metamaterials, termed coupling chiral cuboids, capable of achieving negative Poisson's ratio under both tension and compression. We perform experiments, theoretical analysis, and numerical simulations to validate the wholly auxetic response of the proposed coupling chiral cuboids. Parametric studies are carried out to investigate the effects of structural parameters on the elastic modulus and Poisson's ratio of the coupling chiral cuboids. The results imply that the Poisson's ratio sign-switching from negative to positive can be implemented by manipulating the thickness of Z-shaped ligaments. Finally, the potential application of the coupling chiral cuboids as inner cores for impact-resistant sandwich panels is envisioned and validated. Test results demonstrate a remarkable 49.3% enhancement in energy absorption compared to conventional solid materials.