The influence of large deformations on mechanical properties of sinusoidal ligament structures

Studies of mechanical properties of materials, both theoretical and experimental, usually deal with linear characteristics assuming a small range of deformations. In particular, not much research has been published devoted to large deformations of auxetic structures – i.e. structures exhibiting negative Poisson's ratio. This paper is focused on mechanical properties of selected structures that are subject to large deformations. Four examples of structure built of sinusoidal ligaments are studied and for each geometry the impact of deformation size and geometrical parameters on the effective mechanical properties of these structures are investigated. It is shown that some of them are auxetic when compressed and non-auxetic when stretched. Geometrical parameters describing sinusoidal shape of ligaments strongly affect effective mechanical properties of the structure. In some cases of deformation, the increase of the value of amplitude of the sinusoidal shape decreases the effective Poisson's ratio by 0.7. Therefore the influence of geometry, as well as the arrangement of ligaments allows for smart control of mechanical properties of the sinusoidal ligament structure being considered. Given the large deformation of the structure, both a linear elastic material model, and a hyperelastic Neo-Hookean material model are used.