Analysis of Antichiral Thermomechanical Metamaterials with Continuous Negative Thermal Expansion Properties

Negative thermal expansion is an interesting and appealing phenomenon for various scientific and engineering applications, while rarely occurring in natural materials. Here, using a universal antichiral metamaterial model with bimetal beams or strips, a generic theory has been developed to predict magnitude of the negative thermal expansion effect from model parameters. Thermal expansivity of the metamaterial is written as an explicit function of temperature and only three design parameters: relative node size, chirality angle, and a bimetal constant. Experimental measurements follow theoretical predictions well, where thermal expansivity in the range of negative 0.0006-0.0041 degrees C-1 has been seen.