Geometrical analysis of bi-stretch auxetic woven fabric based on re-entrant hexagonal geometry

This paper reports a study on the geometrical analysis of bi-stretch auxetic woven fabric based on a re-entrant hexagonal geometry. The fabric was first designed and fabricated. Then, the fabric was subjected to tensile tests, and changes in the geometry of the fabric structural unit cell at different tensile strains were observed when stretched either in the warp or weft direction. Based on the observations, a geometrical model was proposed for each stretch direction and used to establish the relationship between Poisson's ratio and tensile strain. The semi-empirical equations for both stretch directions were finally obtained by fitting geometrical parameters with experimental results. It is expected that the semi-empirical equations obtained in this study could be used in the design and prediction of the auxetic behavior of bi-stretch auxetic woven fabrics made with the same type of materials and geometry, but with different values of geometrical parameters.