Planar auxeticity from elliptic inclusions

Composites with elliptic inclusions of long semi-axis a and short semi-axis b are studied by the Finite Element method. The centres of ellipses form a square lattice of the unit lattice constant. The neighbouring ellipses are perpendicular to each other and their axes are parallel to the lattice axes. The influence of geometry and material characteristics on the effective mechanical properties of these anisotropic composites is investigated for deformations applied along lattice axes. It is found that for anisotropic inclusions of low Young's modulus, when a + b -> 1 the effective Poisson's ratio tends to -1, while the effective Young's modulus takes very low values. In this case the structure performs the rotating rigid body mechanism. In the limit of large values of Young's modulus of inclusions, both effective Poisson's ratio and effective Young's modulus saturate to values which do not depend on Poisson's ratio of inclusions but depend on geometry of the composite and the matrix Poisson's ratio. For highly anisotropic inclusions of very large Young's modulus, the effective Poisson's ratio of the composite can be negative for nonauxetic both matrix and inclusions. This is a very simple example of an auxetic structure being not only entirely continuous, but with very high Young's modulus. A severe qualitative change in the composite behaviour is observed as a/b reaches the limit of 1, i.e. inclusions are isotropic. The observed changes in both Poisson's ratio and Young's modulus are complex functions of parameters defining the composite. The latter allows one to tailor a material of practically arbitrary elastic parameters. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.