Isogeometric shape optimization of smoothed petal auxetic structures via computational periodic homogenization

An important feature that drives the auxetic behaviour of the star-shaped auxetic structures is the hinge-functional connection at the vertex connections. This feature poses a great challenge for manufacturing and may lead to significant stress concentrations. To overcome these problems, we introduced smoothed petal-shaped auxetic structures, where the hinges are replaced by smoothed connections. To accommodate the curved features of the petal-shaped auxetics, a parametrisation modelling scheme using multiple NURBS patches is proposed. Next, an integrated shape design frame work using isogeometric analysis is adopted to improve the structural performance. To ensure a minimum thickness for each member, a geometry sizing constraint is imposed via piece-wise bounding polynomials. This geometry sizing constraint, in the context of isogeometric shape optimization, is particularly interesting due to the non-interpolatory nature of NURBS basis. The effective Poisson ratio is used directly as the objective function, and an adjoint sensitivity analysis is carried out. The optimized designs - smoothed petal auxetic structures - are shown to achieve low negative Poisson's ratios, while the difficulties of manufacturing the hinges are avoided. For the case with six petals, an in-plane isotropy is achieved.