Smart metamaterials with tunable auxetic and other properties

Abstract

Auxetic and other mechanical metamaterials are typically studied in situations where they are subjected solely to mechanical forces or displacements even though they may be designed to exhibit additional anomalous behaviour or tunability when subjected to other disturbances such as changes in temperature or magnetic fields. It is shown that externally applied magnetic fields can tune the geometry and macroscopic properties of known auxetics that incorporate magnetic component/s, thus resulting in a change of their macroscopic properties. Anomalous properties which are observed in such novel magneto-mechanical systems include tunable Poisson's ratios, bi-stability or multi-stability, depending on the applied magnetic fields, and other electromagnetic–mechanical effects such as strain dependent induced electric currents and magnetic fields. The properties exhibited depend, amongst other things, on the relative position and orientation of the magnetic insertion/s within the structure, the geometry of the system and the magnetic strength of the magnetic components, including that of the external magnetic field.