Lightweight auxetic metamaterials: Design and characteristic study

In the past decades, auxetic metamaterials have attracted extensive attention due to their desirable properties. In order to further improve the energy absorption properties of auxetic metamaterials, this work investigates the design of lightweight auxetic metamaterials based on the elliptic perforated plate. The material in the large deformation region is retained and the material in the small deformation region is removed as much as possible. The experimental and numerical results indicate that the mechanical properties of the novel metamaterials are almost unchanged, but the specific energy absorption is substantially enhanced owing to the reduced material overall and the distribution of the optimized materials to the most needed area. In this paper, the influence of the amount and mode of the material removal on the mechanical properties of the auxetic metamaterial is explored through the numerical method. The proposed auxetic metamaterials with lightweight characteristics have potential applications in many fields, e.g., civil engineering, aerospace and vehicle engineering.