Anisotropy tailoring in geometrically isotropic multi-material lattices

This article proposes the concept of anisotropy tailoring in multi-material lattices based on a mechanics-based bottom-up framework. It is widely known that isotropy in a mono-material lattice can be obtained when the microstructure has an isotropic geometry. For example, regular hexagonal lattices with a unit cell comprised of six equal members and equal internal angle of each, show isotropy in the elastic properties. Such limited microstructural configuration space for having isotropy severely restricts the scope of many multi-functional applications such as space filling in 3D printing. We first demonstrate that there are multiple structural geometries in mono-material lattices that could lead to isotropy. It is shown that the configuration space for isotropy can be expanded by multiple folds when more than one intrinsic material is introduced in the unit cell of a lattice. We explicitly demonstrate different degrees of anisotropy in regular geometrically isotropic lattices by introducing the multi-material architecture. The contours of achieving minimum anisotropy, maximum anisotropy and a fixed value of anisotropy are presented in the design space consisting of geometric and multi-material parameters. Proposition of such multi-material microstructures could essentially expand the multi-functional design scope significantly, offering a higher degree of flexibility to the designer in terms of choosing (or identifying) the most suitable microstructural geometry. An explicit theoretical characterization of the contours of anisotropy along with physical insights underpinning the configuration space of multi-material and geometric parameters will accelerate the process of its potential exploitation in various engineered multi-functional materials and structural systems across different length-scales with the demand of any specific degree of anisotropy but limitation in the micro-structural geometry

Studies on three-dimensional metamaterials and tubular structures with negative Poisson’s ratio

Materials and structures with negative Poisson’s ratio exhibit counter-intuitive behaviour, i.e., under uniaxial compression (tension), these materials and structures contract (expand) transversely. The materials and structures that possess this feature are also called ‘auxetics’ by Evans. The terminology of ‘auxetic’ becomes a common adjective to describe materials and structures with negative Poisson’s ratio. Many desirable properties resulting from this unusual behaviour have been reported, e.g., higher shear resistance, indentation resistance, fracture resistance, improved acoustic and higher energy absorption, synclastic behaviour and variable permeability. These superior properties offer auxetics broad potential applications, e.g., smart filters, sensors, medical devices and protective equipment. However, there are still many challenging problems which impede wider applications of auxetics. First of all, most of the studied auxetic materials are two-dimensional (2D) and very few three-dimensional (3D) auxetic materials have been designed and investigated. Secondly, the base materials of the most existing auxetic metamaterials are rubber-like materials, hence these auxetic metamaterials are limited to the elastic deformation. In contrast to elastic auxetic metamaterials, metallic auxetic metamaterials exhibit some new features in mechanical properties, e.g., localisation of plastic strain, strain hardening and irreversible deformation. Furthermore, metallic metamaterials are usually stronger than those made of elastomers, which leads to superior loading resistance and energy absorption. Last but not the least, although most of the publications mention that auxetic materials possess many desirable properties, very few auxetic materials have been designed and fabricated to the practical stage. Therefore, it is worthy of carrying out more original research to explore new applications for auxetic materials. In order to fill the research gap mentioned above and create better auxetic materials for applications, in this study, extensive numerical and experimental investigations have been conducted. Firstly, a novel methodology was proposed to generate a 3D metallic cubic auxetic material based on a cubic buckling-induced auxetic material. It was found that the base material affected the auxetic behaviour of the buckling-induced cubic auxetic materials. When the elastomer base material was replaced with a ductile metallic material, the previously observed auxetic behaviour of the buckling-induced auxetic material would disappear. Inspired by this unexpected behaviour, a new methodology of generating 3D metallic auxetic materials was developed. The effectiveness of the methodology was then proved experimentally and numerically. The mechanical properties of the designed 3D metallic auxetic materials could be easily tuned by one single parameter of pattern scale factor (PSF). In the second part of this study, a simple auxetic tubular structure which exhibited auxetic behaviour both in compression and tension was generated by using the newly proposed PSF methodology. This simple auxetic tubular structure could also be tuned by one single parameter of the PSF. When the scale of PSF reached a certain value (around 60% in this study), the designed tubular structure exhibited an approximately identical auxetic effect both in tension and compression. In the third part of this study, a simple 3D auxetic metamaterial was designed which demonstrated the unexpected 2D auxetic behaviour. By utilising the proposed PSF methodology, the 2D auxetic behaviour could be successfully transformed to 3D auxetic behaviour. Hence, the functionality of the proposed PSF methodology was further extended. In the last part of this study, the first auxetic nails were designed, fabricated and experimentally investigated. According to the experimental results, the designed auxetic nails could not demonstrate superior mechanical performance to non-auxetic nails. Therefore, it would prudent to re-examine the potential applications for auxetic materials because many existing publications in the field might have overestimated the superiorities of auxetic materials and their limitations and disadvantages have been rarely discussed

Geometric construction of auxetic metamaterials

(Eurographics 2021)International audienceThis paper is devoted to a category of metamaterials called auxetics, identified by their negative Poisson's ratio. Our work consists in exploring geometrical strategies to generate irregular auxetic structures. More precisely we seek to reduce the Poisson's ratio $\nu$, by pruning an irregular network based solely on geometric criteria. We introduce a strategy combining a pure geometric pruning algorithm followed by a physics-based testing phase to determine the resulting Poisson's ratio of our structures. We propose an algorithm that generates sets of irregular auxetic networks.Our contributions include geometrical characterization of auxetic networks, development of a pruning strategy, generation of auxetic networks with low Poisson's ratio, as well as validation of our approach. We provide statistical validation of our approach on large sets of irregular networks, and we additionally laser-cut auxetic networks in sheets of rubber. The findings reported here show that it is possible to reduce the Poisson's ratio by geometric pruning, and that we can generate irregular auxetic networks at lower processing times than a physics-based approach

On the design workflow of auxetic metamaterials for structural applications

Auxetic metamaterials exhibit an unexpected behaviour of a negative Poisson's ratio, meaning they expand transversely when stretched longitudinally. This behaviour is generated predominantly due to the way individual elements of an auxetic lattice are structured. These structures are gaining interest in a wide variety of applications such as energy absorption, sensors, smart filters, vibration isolation and medical etc. Their potential could be further exploited by the use of additive manufacturing. Currently there is a lack of guidance on how to design these structures. This paper highlights state-of-the-art in auxetic metamaterials and its commonly used unit-cell types. It further explores the design approaches used in the literature on creating auxetic lattices for different applications and proposes, for the first time, a workflow comprising design, simulation and testing of auxetic structures. This workflow provides guidance on the design process for using auxetic metamaterials in structural applications

Numerical modelling of additive manufacturing process for stainless steel tension testing samples

Nowadays additive manufacturing (AM) technologies including 3D printing grow rapidly and they are expected to replace conventional subtractive manufacturing technologies to some extents. During a selective laser melting (SLM) process as one of popular AM technologies for metals, large amount of heats is required to melt metal powders, and this leads to distortions and/or shrinkages of additively manufactured parts. It is useful to predict the 3D printed parts to control unwanted distortions and shrinkages before their 3D printing. This study develops a two-phase numerical modelling and simulation process of AM process for 17-4PH stainless steel and it considers the importance of post-processing and the need for calibration to achieve a high-quality printing at the end. By using this proposed AM modelling and simulation process, optimal process parameters, material properties, and topology can be obtained to ensure a part 3D printed successfully

ATHENA Research Book

The ATHENA European University is an alliance of nine Higher Education Institutions with the mission of fostering excellence in research and innovation by facilitating international cooperation. The ATHENA acronym stands for Advanced Technologies in Higher Education Alliance. The partner institutions are from France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Lithuania, Portugal, and Slovenia: the University of Orléans, the University of Siegen, the Hellenic Mediterranean University, the Niccolò Cusano University, the Vilnius Gediminas Technical University, the Polytechnic Institute of Porto, and the University of Maribor. In 2022 institutions from Poland and Spain joined the alliance: the Maria Curie-Skłodowska University and the University of Vigo. This research book presents a selection of the ATHENA university partners' research activities. It incorporates peer-reviewed original articles, reprints and student contributions. The ATHENA Research Book provides a platform that promotes joint and interdisciplinary research projects of both advanced and early-career researchers

Topology optimization of multi-material negative Poisson's ratio metamaterials using a reconciled level set method

Metamaterials are defined as a family of rationally designed artificial materials which can provide extraordinary effective properties compared with their nature counterparts. This paper proposes a level set based method for topology optimization of both single and multiple-material Negative Poisson's Ratio (NPR) metamaterials. For multi-material topology optimization, the conventional level set method is advanced with a new approach exploiting the reconciled level set (RLS) method. The proposed method simplifies the multi-material topology optimization by evolving each individual material with a single level set function and reconciling the result level set field with the Merriman–Bence–Osher (MBO) operator. The NPR metamaterial design problem is recast as a variational problem, where the effective elastic properties of the spatially periodic microstructure are formulated as the strain energy functionals under uniform displacement boundary conditions. The adjoint variable method is utilized to derive the shape sensitivities by combining the general linear elastic equation with a weak imposition of Dirichlet boundary conditions. The design velocity field is constructed using the steepest descent method and integrated with the level set method. Both single and multiple-material mechanical metamaterials are achieved in 2D and 3D with different Poisson's ratios and volumes. Benchmark designs are fabricated with multi-material 3D printing at high resolution. The effective auxetic properties of the achieved designs are verified through finite element simulations and characterized using experimental tests as well

ATHENA Research Book, Volume 1

The ATHENA European University is an alliance of nine Higher Education Institutions with the mission of fostering excellence in research and innovation by facilitating international cooperation. The ATHENA acronym stands for Advanced Technologies in Higher Education Alliance. The partner institutions are from France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Lithuania, Portugal, and Slovenia: the University of Orléans, the University of Siegen, the Hellenic Mediterranean University, the Niccolò Cusano University, the Vilnius Gediminas Technical University, the Polytechnic Institute of Porto, and the University of Maribor. In 2022 institutions from Poland and Spain joined the alliance: the Maria Curie-Skłodowska University and the University of Vigo. This research book presents a selection of the ATHENA university partners' research activities. It incorporates peer-reviewed original articles, reprints and student contributions. The ATHENA Research Book provides a platform that promotes joint and interdisciplinary research projects of both advanced and early-career researchers

Engineering Education and Research Using MATLAB

MATLAB is a software package used primarily in the field of engineering for signal processing, numerical data analysis, modeling, programming, simulation, and computer graphic visualization. In the last few years, it has become widely accepted as an efficient tool, and, therefore, its use has significantly increased in scientific communities and academic institutions. This book consists of 20 chapters presenting research works using MATLAB tools. Chapters include techniques for programming and developing Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs), dynamic systems, electric machines, signal and image processing, power electronics, mixed signal circuits, genetic programming, digital watermarking, control systems, time-series regression modeling, and artificial neural networks