Application of negative Poisson’s ratio honeycomb structure in force measurement

Purpose This paper aims to clarify the principle of force measurement using the auxetic structure by studying the relationship among the force, the change of transmittance and the change of output current of the solar cell. Design/methodology/approach This paper opted for an exploratory study using combining theory with experiment. This paper analysized the theoretical model and deformation of the auxetic structure. It used a hexagon honeycomb structure as a comparison in the experiment. The experiment was conducted on a universal testing machine, and the data was obtained by a digital acquisition card. The data was analyzed without using any signal processing means. Findings This paper provides the linearity and the sensitivity of the proposed force measurement method. It shows a good linear relationship between the input and output of this method and good sensitivity, stability and repeatability without using any signal processing means. Originality/value This paper provides new structural insights for force sensors and presents future research directions.