A simple auxetic tubular structure with tuneable mechanical properties

Auxetic materials and structures are increasingly used in various fields because of their unusual properties. Auxetic tubular structures have been fabricated and studied due to their potential to be adopted as oesophageal stents where only tensile auxetic performance is required. However, studies on compressive mechanical properties of auxetic tubular structures are limited in the current literature. In this paper, we developed a simple tubular structure which exhibits auxetic behaviour in both compression and tension. This was achieved by extending a design concept recently proposed by the authors for generating 3D metallic auxetic metamaterials. Both compressive and tensile mechanical properties of the auxetic tubular structure were investigated. It was found that the methodology for generating 3D auxetic metamaterials could be effectively used to create auxetic tubular structures as well. By properly adjusting certain parameters, the mechanical properties of the designed auxetic tubular structure could be easily tuned.