Novel Tube Type Meta-Biomaterials With Enhanced Ductility: A Finite Element Approach

Auxetic meta-biomaterials possess unique mechanical properties including negative Poisson’s ratio and high energy absorption. Depending on the deformation mechanism, auxetic materials exhibit different mechanical behaviors, making them versatile and ideal for many biomedical engineering applications. However, there is a lack of research done on hybridizing the two main deformation mechanisms to optimize the advantages that each mechanism exhibits in the field of biomedical engineering. Understanding the mechanical behavior and fatigue failure mechanisms of auxetic materials is essential for optimizing structural performance and ensuring reliability. This study implemented finite element analysis (FEA) using ANSYS to study the mechanical response of a new re-entrant arrowhead (RAH) lattice structure with an active link-based mechanism. 2D structural analysis was experimented on the reference and newly proposed topologies under displacement-controlled and load-controlled loading to assess load-deflection behavior, Poisson’s ratio within the plastic region, dispersion of energy, fatigue strength analysis, and damage behavior. As a result of the study, the new topology has the capabilities of improving auxetic behavior by 146%, energy absorption behavior with a magnitude of 2.6 while maintaining flexural capacity and maintaining similar fatigue behavior as the reference topology.