Auxetic materials and structures have a negative Poisson’s ratio and it is this unique property that differentiates them from traditional materials. In recent years, three-dimensional (3D) auxetic structures have attracted considerable interest with the emergence of advanced manufacturing technologies. Many studies have been carried out to determine the mechanical properties of the existing 3D structures or improve and develop new ones, and extensive research is ongoing. This paper presents a comparative numerical study of two-dimensional (2D) and 3D geometries of four different auxetic structures, namely: elliptic holes, lozenge grids, re-entrant and arrowhead. Among these structures, elliptic holes and lozenge grids are designed and studied in 3D for the first time in this study. The structures are analysed under axial tension and the Poisson’s ratio, Young’s modulus and stiffness values are obtained from linear finite element model analysis. In addition, the unit cells of the 3D structures are examined. The findings showed that the elliptical holes structure exhibits a higher negative Poisson’s ratio than other auxetics and the 3D re-entrant and 2D arrowhead structures outperform the other auxetics with respect to the Young’s modulus and stiffness values.

OBJECTIVES: This study experimentally compares the efficiency of the 4 most preferred sternal closure tehniques, in 3 different deformation modes of the chest. METHODS: Polyurethane sternum models fixed by conventional wiring, steel band, ZipFix band and figure-8 wiring are tested statically under lateral distraction, longitudinal shear and torsional deformation modes. As a result, load-deformation curves are obtained. The closure efficiency of the techniques is then compared with respect to allowable load (corresponding to 2 mm displacement), rigidity, rupture load and rupture displacement. A comparison in terms of cost and ease of application has also been presented. RESULTS: The highest allowable load and rigidity values in simple tension and longitudinal shear are obtained by the steel and ZipFix band techniques, respectively. In torsion mode, the highest allowable load is provided by the ZipFix band and the highest rigidty is attained by the steel band technique. The highest rupture loads under simple tension, longitudinal shear and torsion modes are observed in ZipFix, steel band and conventional wiring, respectively. Steel band closure provides the least rupture displacement in simple tension as well as torsion, whereas ZipFix bands give the smallest rupture displacements in longitudinal shear. However, in every loading mode there were no statistically significant differences in allowable load, rigidity and rupture load values between the closure methods, and only rupture displacement values were statistically different for each method. CONCLUSIONS: Our results showed that conventional wiring is the most advantageous closing method when compared to the others.

Auxetic materials or structures possess a negative Poisson’s ratio in contrast to conventional materials, and they shrink or expand transversely under uniaxial compression or tension, respectively. These unique deformation features leads to enhance the mechanical properties compared with the conventional materials. Auxetic tubular structures are of significant interest in the literature because of their superior mechanical qualities, applicability and extensive application. Various auxetic tubular structures with different geometries have been proposed and examined before including conventional peanut-shaped tubular structures. However, application of the peanut-shaped structures is limited due to their low stiffness. In this study, it is aimed to enhance the stiffness of the peanut-shaped tubular auxetic by either adding stiffener to the conventional structure or rotating the unit cell of the structure by a certain angle. Also, the effect of the above-mentioned modifications on the Poisson’s ratio of the structure is investigated. A total of 12 different peanut-shaped auxetics are modelled and the elastic behaviour of these structures under uniaxial compression is compared numerically using finite element simulation. As a result of this analysis, it is observed that both the Poisson’s ratio and stiffness values obtained from the models utilising stiffener were higher than the values obtained from their conventional counterparts. Besides, it is seen that the stiffness values increased while the Poisson’s ratios decreased with the rotation of the unit cell in all of the peanut-shaped tubular auxetics.

Auxetic materials have attracted significant interest due to their exceptional mechanical characteristics and distinctive deformation modes. Nevertheless, the practical use of these materials in engineering is constrained by their limited ability to absorb energy. Thus, enhancing the energy absorption (EA) capabilities of auxetic materials is crucial to expand their range of potential applications. In this study, the EA capabilities of auxetic tubular structures with rotating deformation mechanisms are examined, with a specific emphasis on three different perforation shapes: elliptic, peanut, and square, along with their modified versions incorporating stiffeners. The study employs a combination of experimental testing and numerical modelling, utilising ANSYS/LS-DYNA to evaluate various crashworthiness parameters. These parameters include total EA, specific EA, maximum crushing force, and crushing force efficiency, all of which are assessed under quasi-static compression conditions. The research highlights the importance of perforation shape and stiffener incorporation in enhancing crashworthiness. Results show that elliptic perforations exhibit superior EA and stiffened auxetic models outperform conventional ones in terms of crash absorber performance. The presence of stiffeners significantly improves the ability of tubular structures to withstand crushing forces. Furthermore, the study validates the numerical model against experimental findings, demonstrating a high level of agreement in terms of crushing force–displacement, EA, and failure modes. The research provides valuable insights into the design and performance of crashworthy structures and offers potential applications in various fields where impact resistance and EA are critical.

Concrete-filled steel columns (CFSCs) are of great interest in the literature as they are capable of carrying higher loads by combining the exceptional qualities of steel and concrete. With auxetic materials being introduced to civil engineering applications, the influence of these materials on CFSCs remains a matter of curiosity. The current study implements a nonlinear finite element analysis to evaluate the performance of circular CFSCs with six auxetic tubes under axial compression and the proposed numerical model was validated using published experimental data. The effect of the auxetic steel tube’s porosity and Poisson’s ratio on CFSCs was examined parametrically in terms of ultimate strength using the confined concrete model. Moreover, the stress distributions of the concrete and the auxetic steel tubes were also thoroughly examined. Based on the findings of the analysis, the ultimate load of CFSCs, utilising auxetic tubes with the same density and porosity but different Poisson’s ratio, increased proportionally with the increase of auxetic behaviour. When it comes to auxetic tubes with different densities and porosities, the influence of the Poisson’s ratio of the tubes diminished and the stiffness of tubes became more dominant over the mechanical characteristics of columns as the density of the auxetic steel tubes increased or decreased. The stiffness of the auxetic tubes reduced as porosity increased, as did the ultimate load of the columns. Additionally, the ultimate loads of the auxetic steel tube columns are found to be lower than those of bare steel tube columns filled with concrete due to perforations.

The main purpose of this study is to develop a validated three-dimensional finite element model of sternum closure techniques. For this aim, the finite element method analysis results of three closure methods were compared with experimental test results. Also, three more closure techniques are simulated numerically to study the effect of the number of wires used in the manubrium and xiphoid regions. A three-dimensional model of polyurethane sternum foam was created based on computed tomography images. Six different closure techniques using steel wire, steel bands and ZipFix bands were modeled on the sternum and transferred into a three-dimensional finite element model. The sternum was modeled as an isotropic bilinear-elasto-plastic material, and nonlinear contact conditions were applied. The models were analyzed under lateral distraction loading, and load-displacement curves were obtained from displacements at the incision line. Allowable loads and stiffness values of the methods were evaluated from these curves. The results showed the importance of the including material as well as geometric nonlinearities in the simulations to obtain realistic results from the numerical analyses. Also, the analyses showed that closures that include steel or ZipFix bands are superior to conventional wiring, and addition of a single wire at the manubrium and xiphoid regions significantly improved the efficiency of the closure techniques.