materials Article Idealized 3D Auxetic Mechanical Metamaterial: An Analytical, Numerical, and Experimental Study Naeim Ghavidelnia 1 , Mahdi Bodaghi 2 and Reza Hedayati 3,* 1 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Amirkabir University of Technology (Tehran Polytechnic), Hafez Ave, Tehran 1591634311, Iran;
[email protected] 2 Department of Engineering, School of Science and Technology, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham NG11 8NS, UK;
[email protected] 3 Novel Aerospace Materials, Faculty of Aerospace Engineering, Delft University of Technology (TU Delft), Kluyverweg 1, 2629 HS Delft, The Netherlands * Correspondence:
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[email protected] Abstract: Mechanical metamaterials are man-made rationally-designed structures that present un- precedented mechanical properties not found in nature. One of the most well-known mechanical metamaterials is auxetics, which demonstrates negative Poisson’s ratio (NPR) behavior that is very beneficial in several industrial applications. In this study, a specific type of auxetic metamaterial structure namely idealized 3D re-entrant structure is studied analytically, numerically, and experi- mentally. The noted structure is constructed of three types of struts—one loaded purely axially and two loaded simultaneously flexurally and axially, which are inclined and are spatially defined by angles q and j. Analytical relationships for elastic modulus, yield stress, and Poisson’s ratio of the 3D re-entrant unit cell are derived based on two well-known beam theories namely Euler–Bernoulli and Timoshenko. Moreover, two finite element approaches one based on beam elements and one based on volumetric elements are implemented. Furthermore, several specimens are additively Citation: Ghavidelnia, N.; Bodaghi, manufactured (3D printed) and tested under compression.