Soft Actuation of Structured Cylinders through Auxetic Behavior

Arnaud Lazarus (1, 2, 3) , Pedro M. Reis (4, 2)

1 IJLRDA-MISES - Mécanique et Ingénierie des Solides Et des Structures
2 MIT-MECHE - Department of Mechanical Engineering [Massachusetts Institute of Technology]
3 DALEMBERT - Institut Jean Le Rond d'Alembert
4 CEE - Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering [Cambridge]

There has been a recent upsurge in the study of auxetic, or negative Poisson’s ratio, materials that derive functionality from mechanical instabilities of the underlying structure. One of the simplest auxetic designs comprises an elastomeric slab patterned with an array of voids. [6,7] Under uniaxial compression, the slender ligaments contiguous to the voids buckle cooperatively, resulting in the shrinkage in the orthogonal direction, and hence a negative Poisson’s ratio. This mechanism has also been implemented in patterned spherical shells that can significantly reduce their volume under loading, while remaining spherical. [12] We regard this self-folding induced by buckling as a minimal mechanism for soft actuation, with a single radial degree of freedom.

Domaines: Physique [physics]; Sciences de l'ingénieur [physics]

Arnaud Lazarus, Pedro M. Reis. Soft Actuation of Structured Cylinders through Auxetic Behavior. Advanced Engineering Materials, 2015, 17 (6), pp.815-820. ⟨10.1002/adem.201400433⟩. ⟨hal-01447311⟩