Computational Investigation of the Effective Mechanical Behavior for 3D Pre-Buckled Auxetic Lattices

Abstract

Negative Poisson’s ratio materials, or auxetics, have drawn attention for the past 30 years. The auxetic effect could lead to improved mechanical properties such as acoustic damping, indentation resistance, or crashworthiness. In this work, two 3D auxetic lattices are introduced. Auxeticity is achieved by design through pre-buckling of the lattice struts. The influence of geometrical parameters on the effective elastic properties is investigated using computational homogenization method with periodic boundary conditions. Effective Young’s modulus is 3D mapped to reveal anisotropy and identify spatial orientations of interest. The effective Poisson ratio is computed for various geometric configurations to characterize auxeticity. Finally, the influence of effective elastic properties on energy dissipation under compression is explored for elastoplastic lattices with different loading directions, using finite element simulations. Results suggest that loading 3D auxetic lattices along their stiffest direction maximizes their crashworthiness.