Influence of translational disorder on the mechanical properties of hexachiral honeycomb systems

Chiral honeycombs are one of the most important and oft studied classes of auxetic systems due to their vast number of potential applications which range from stent geometries to composites, sensors and satellite components. Despite numerous works on these systems, however, relatively few studies have investigated the effect of structural disorder on these structures. In view of this, in this study, the effect of translational disorder on hexachiral honeycombs were investigated through a Finite Element approach. It was found that this type of disorder has minimal effect on the Poisson's ratios of these systems provided that the ligament length to thickness ratio remains sufficiently large and the overall length to width ratio of the disordered system does not differ considerably from that of its ordered counterpart. This makes it ideal for use in various applications and products such as sandwich composites with an auxetic core. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.