Smart behaviour of layered plates through the use of auxetic materials

•Auxetic materials are introduced.•Potentiality of auxetic materials in design of smart structure is presented.•The mechanical behaviour of an auxetic re-entrant star-like cell is developed.•Large deflection of layered plates with an auxetic ply is considered.•Smart behaviour of auxetic layered plates is discussed.

The development of smart structures, aimed at optimizing the response of engineering systems, is a modern and very promising field. Such advanced structural element can be obtained, in some cases, by using the so-called auxetic materials, i.e. materials exhibiting negative Poisson׳s ratio. In the present paper a brief introduction on auxetic materials and on their use and potentiality is presented. In particular their application to obtain smart layered plates is discussed; it is shown as these materials allow, in certain conditions, to get a desired stiffness and a nearly linear behaviour (even under large displacement conditions) of bended plates, without changing the plate׳s geometry and materials. Such potentialities are presented and discussed based on numerical analyses, and a mechanical interpretation of the observed structural behaviour is proposed.