Enhancing buckling capacity of a rectangular plate under uniaxial compression by utilizing an auxetic material

Auxetic materials have previously been shown to enhance various performances due to its unusual property of becoming fatter when uniaxially stretched and thinner when uniaxially compressed (i.e., the materials exhibit a negative Poisson’s ratio). The current study focuses on assessing the potential of an auxetic material to enhance the buckling capacity of a rectangular plate under uniaxial compression. The in-plane translational restraint along the unloaded edges that was often neglected in open literature is taken into consideration in our buckling model proposed in this study. The closed-form expressions for the critical buckling coefficient of the rectangle are provided and the predicted results agree well with those determined by the finite element method. Furthermore, the results indicate that the buckling performance of a rectangular plate under uniaxial compression can be significantly improved by replacing the traditional material that has a positive Poisson’s ratio with an auxetic material when there is in-plane translation restraint along the unloaded edges.