Materials and Design 196 (2020) 109153

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Materials and Design

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/matdes

4D printed zero Poisson's ratio metamaterial with switching function

of mechanical and vibration isolation performance
Kai Liu a, Le Han d, Wenxia Hu a, Longtao Ji b, Shengxin Zhu a,⁎, Zhishuai Wan a,⁎, Xudong Yang a, Yuling Wei a,
Zongjie Dai a, Zeang Zhao a, Zhen Li c, Pengfei Wang c, Ran Tao a,⁎
a
Institute of Advanced Structure Technology, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, China
b
Department of Mechanics and Engineering Structure, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan 430070, China
c
Qian Xuesen Laboratory of Space Technology, China Academy of Space Technology, Beijing 100094, China
d
Beijing Electro-mechanical Engineering Institute, Beijing 100074, China

H I G H L I G H T S G R A P H I C A L A B S T R A C T

• A 4D printed zero-Poisson's ratio

metamaterial with programmable
shapes, thermally tunable mechanical
performance is created.
• A cylindrical design is proposed to elim-
inate buckling distortion in unit cells
during compression,.
• Based on gradient design, controllable
and defect-insensitive local deformation
can be achieved in the metamaterial.
• The metamaterial can effectively reduce
the vibration amplitude of certain fre-
quency bands before the resonance
peak.

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The unusual properties of mechanical metamaterials are determined by the configuration of artificial periodic
Received 21 August 2020 structures. However, the mechanical performance of conventional metamaterials is irreversible and cannot per-
Received in revised form 11 September 2020 ceive and respond to the changes in the environment. In present study, a zero Poisson's ratio metamaterial with
Accepted 14 September 2020
intelligent switching mechanical properties and vibration isolation effect is proposed. Based on a 4D printing
Available online 16 September 2020
method of shape memory polymer, this metamaterial is created that can sense temperature changes and switch
Keywords:
mechanical properties. The macroscopic deformation and the morphology change of the metamaterial during
4D printing compression tests are analyzed using experimental and finite element methods. The irregular buckling distortion
Shape memory behavior of the metamaterial is eliminated by cylindrical design, and controllable and adjustable local deformation and
Metamaterial stress-strain curve are achieved based on microstructure gradient design. Subsequently, this work focused on
Vibration isolation the vibration isolation performance of metamaterials, and found fascinating shock absorption performance. Com-
pared with traditional linear spring, this metamaterial spring can effectively reduce the vibration amplitude of
certain frequency bands before reaching the resonance peak, which provides a new realization method for
low-frequency vibration isolation design.
© 2020 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

1. Introduction
⁎ Corresponding authors.
E-mail addresses: zhusx19@163.com (S. Zhu), wanzhishuai@buaa.edu.cn (Z. Wan), Multicellular materials have excellent mechanical properties and are
taoran@bit.edu.cn (R. Tao). widely used in packaging engineering, vehicle and aerospace fields

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matdes.2020.109153
0264-1275/© 2020 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
K. Liu, L. Han, W. Hu et al.
[1–3]. At present, the commonly used multicellular materials are mainly
hexagonal honeycomb lattices, which have high specific energy absorp-
tion values [4]. Mechanical metamaterials are a kind of multicellular
materials with extraordinary mechanical properties [5,6]. Metamateri-
als have created new properties without precedents, and expanded
the available property space of materials [7]. Based on the development
of 3D printing technology, metamaterials use highly ordered materials
and structural system design concepts in 3D space to achieve new and
interesting physical functions such as negative Poisson's ratio [8,9], neg-
ative stiffness [10], Zero/negative expansion [11] and fluid-like solids
with near-zero shear modulus [12].
Based on the lateral deformation effect of the material when under
tension or compression, metamaterials can be summarized into three
categories: positive Poisson's ratio, negative Poisson's ratio and zero-
Poisson's ratio materials [13]. Fig. 1 shows three typical deformation
modes with different Poisson's ratios. Negative Poisson's ratio metama-
terials, which undergo lateral shrinkage (expansion) under uniaxial
compression (tension), have attracted wide interest in engineering
[14]. Negative Poisson's ratio metamaterials have special mechanical
properties in terms of shear resistance, energy absorption capacity
[15], and indentation resistance [16]. However, in the fields of medical
equipment, sensors, protective equipment, and soft robots, unidirec-
tional deformation of zero-Poisson's ratio cellular metamaterials is re-
quired, that is, lateral shrinkage does not occur under uniaxial
compression [17,18]. Recently, zero-Poisson's ratio metamaterials
have become a hot research topic. Leng et al. [19] proposed a zero-
Poisson's ratio metamaterial, and established the theoretical expression
of its equivalent bending modulus. This material improves the out-of-
plane bending compliance without reducing the transverse shear stiff-
ness and bending stiffness. Scarpa et al. [20] proposed a four-pointed
star zero-Poisson's ratio honeycomb metamaterial, which achieves de-
formation in two orthogonal directions, and does not cause the increase
of the equivalent elastic modulus in the non-deformed direction to sup-
press the Poisson effect. Clausen et al. [21] created a new class of
architected metamaterials with programmable Poisson's ratios between
−0.8 and 0.8 that display a nearly constant Poisson's ratio over large de-
formations of up to 20% or more. Broccolo et al. [22] reported a mixed
zero-Poisson's ratio honeycomb metamaterial with alternating hexago-
nal and reentrant hexagonal honeycomb lattices. The load-bearing ca-
pacity of the material is significantly improved without reducing the
structural deformation capacity. Lei et al. [23] studied the mechanical
properties and energy absorption capability of metal hybrid honeycomb
metamaterials under in-plane compression.
The unique mechanical properties of zero-Poisson's ratio metamate-
rials come from their substrate, lattice configuration and integration
method [24]. However, current zero-Poisson's ratio metamaterials are
manufactured by traditional materials, which have fixed characteristics
and cannot adapt to the loading environment by adjusting their me-
chanical properties [25]. 4D printing is the further development and im-
provement of 3D printing [26]. It increases the dimension of time on the
Fig. 1. Deformation modes of materials with positive, negative and zero Poisson's ratio. The dash line indicates the initial shape.
2
Materials and Design 196 (2020) 109153
basis of 3D printing. 4D Printed objects are no longer static and stable,
and their morphology and attributes could change dynamically with
time [27,28]. Shape memory polymer (SMP) is a kind of material with
intelligent adjustable mechanical properties [29]. 4D printing research
based on SMP has set off a widespread research boom in academia
and engineering [30]. Zero-Poisson's ratio SMP metamaterials with re-
versible deformation and adjustable mechanical properties are flexible
and adaptable, and thus broaden their application range.
In present work, an AuxHex metamaterial with zero-Poisson's ratio
was constructed by 4D printing using shape memory polymers. It real-
izes the functions of intelligent switching mechanical properties and vi-
bration isolation effect. Compression tests at various temperatures were
carried out to investigate the mechanical properties of the
metamaterial. The irregular buckling distortion in the two-
dimensional metamaterials is analyzed and a three-dimensional cylin-
drical design was proposed to eliminate the buckling phenomenon. Gra-
dient design method was applied to the cylindrical metamaterial to
attain controllable localized deformation and adjustable stress-strain
curve. Finally, the intelligent switchable vibration isolation capability
of the metamaterial is studied by a home-made testing system. Fasci-
nating negative vibration level difference at low frequency before reso-
nance is found. This metamaterial spring can effectively reduce the
vibration amplitude of certain frequency bands before reaching the res-
onance peak, which provides a new realization method for low-
frequency vibration isolation design. Furthermore, the vibration isola-
tion performance of the metamaterial spring can be changed by chang-
ing the temperature.
2. Fabrication, simulation and design strategy
2.1. SMP manufacturing method
In this work, a photo-crosslinkable and temperature-responsive
shape memory polymer (SMP) was utilized as the constituent material
for mechanical metamaterials. To fabricate 3D SMP metamaterials, a
light-curable inkjet 3D printer (objet, 350, Stratasys, USA) was
employed. This SMP is a polymerized polymer. Its printing ink includes
isobornyl acrylate, acrylic monomer, urethane acrylate, epoxy acrylate,
acrylic monomer, acrylic oligomer and photo initiator. Dynamic me-
chanical analysis (DMA) tests were carried out to characterize the
thermomechanical properties of the SMP. As shown in Fig. S1 of the
supporting information, dynamic modulus of SMP changes from
900 MPa at 25 °C to 15 MPa at 70 °C, over 60 times. The Tan Delta
curve indicates that the SMP's glass transition temperature (Tg) is
67 °C. At Tg, the SMP material switches between the glass state and rub-
ber state. SMPs have the ability to maintain a temporarily deformed
shape (shape programming) and return to their original shape (shape
recovery) upon appropriate stimulation, for example, heating. Fig. 2 de-
picts the shape memory cycle of the SMP material. By controlling the
K. Liu, L. Han, W. Hu et al. Materials and Design 196 (2020) 109153

Fig. 2. A shape memory cycle of the SMP material, showing shape programming and recovery functions.

temperature and mechanical constraints, SMP structures can be shape-
programmed, and automatically recovered.
2.2. SMP constitutive model and finite element simulation
Deformation theory of SMP materials is developed for finite element
analysis of the 4D printed mechanical metamaterials. A three dimen-
sional constitutive model is established based on the model proposed
by Tao et al. [29]. The SMP constitutive model is as follows.
The geometry of the AuxHex cells are depicted in Fig. 3(b) and rel-
evant geometry parameters used in present study are listed in
Table 1. The wall length and tilt angle of hexagonal structures are
represented as l1 and θ1, respectively. Similarly, the re-entrant hex-
agonal structure is described by l2, θ 2 and h2. In addition, the wall
thickness of hexagonal and re-entrant hexagonal structures is rep-
resented as t. The length of the connection wall between the hexag-
onal and re-entrant hexagonal structure is h, and should meet the
following requirement.

ε_ ij þ
5ν−1
δij ε_ kk ¼ h ¼ ðl1 þ h2 Þ=2 ð3Þ
8
3ð1−2νÞ 
>
> ð1 þ ν Þσ_ ij σ ij εij 1 E 1 _ ij ; as ε c ðt 1 Þ < ε l ðT Þ
>
> þ − − − δij ε kk þ α Tδ The relative density (ρ) of AuxHex structures can be obtained from
>
> E μ λ 3 μ ð1−2ν Þ λ

>
> 
>
< ð1 þ ν Þσ_ ij σ ij εij −ε S ðT; C Þδij 1 E 1 _ ij ; the representative volume element configuration, as shown below:
þ − − − δij εkk þ α Tδ
E μ λ 3 μ ð1−2ν Þ λ
>
> _
>
> as ε c ðt 1 Þ ≥ε l ðT Þ; ε c ðt 1 Þ > 0 ρ∗ t  ð5l1 þ 4l2 þ h2 þ 2hÞ
>
>
ρ¼ ¼ ð4Þ
>
> ð1 þ νÞσ_ ij σ ij ε ij −ε S ðt 1 ; T Þδij 1 E 1
>
: þ − − − δij ε kk þ α Tδ _ ij ; as ε_ c ðt 1 Þ ≤0 ρs 2l1  sin θ1 ðl1 þ h2 þ 2h−2l1 cos θ1 −2l2 cos θ2 Þ
E μ λ 3 μ ð1−2ν Þ λ
ð1Þ where ρ ∗ refers to the equivalent density of the AuxHex structure and ρs
corresponds to the density of the constituent material.
where C and εl denote the coupling coefficient and a threshold value of
:
the creep strain, respectively. t1 represents the moment of εc ¼ 0 as the 3. Results and discussion
creep strain rate varies from positive to negative. The viscosity coeffi-
cient μ, the retardation time λ and the creep residual strain εs are re- 3.1. Mechanical behavior of shape memory and switching between rigidity
placed by μ, λ and εs . and flexibility

−1
Cμ Cεl σ In order to achieve reconfigurable, deployable zero-Poisson's ratio
μ ¼ μ 1− , λ ¼ λð1−C Þ−1 , εS ¼ − , εc ¼ ε− ð2Þ
Eλ 1−C E metamaterial, SMP was utilized to print the AuxHex metamaterial.
:
Shape programming and recovery cycles of the SMP metamaterial are
under the conditions of εc ðt 1 Þ ⩾ εl ðT Þ, εc ðt Þ > 0, where ε and σ are the shown in Fig. 4. Simulation results of the shape programing and recov-
equivalent values of strain ε and stress σ, respectively. The development ery of the metamaterial is consistent with experimental results. The
process of SMP constitutive model is introduced in detail in the S2 of metamaterial is first heated to 70 °C (>Tg, rubbery state) and then com-
supporting information. pressed to a prescribed value. Then the temperature descends to 30 °C
In order to perform finite element simulation on mechanical meta- (<Tg, the glassy state) while the displacement constraints are retained.
materials, user material subroutines are used to integrate SMP constitu- Subsequently, mechanical loads are removed to complete the shape
tive equations and material parameters into ABAQUS. programming process. It is observed that the deformed shape is
retained in the metamaterial and the metamaterial obtains new me-
2.3. Design strategy of zero Poisson's ratio metamaterials chanical properties as its unit cell configuration is programmed. Upon
heating back to 70 °C, the original shape of the microlattice is
Hexagonal honeycomb structures, inspired by natural existing completely recovered as the SMP undergoes glassy-rubbery transition.
biological patterns, are a typical example of positive Poisson's The SMP zero-Poisson's ratio metamaterial shows geometrically pro-
ratio multicellular materials. In Fig. 3(a), hexagon honeycombs ex- grammable, reconfigurable and deployable functions. It is potential to
pand in the lateral direction under vertical compression loads. On be applied as intelligent impact resistant and energy-absorption mate-
the contrary, re-entrant honeycombs, also referred as auxetic ma- rial [32] in automobile, soft robots and other fields.
terials, show negative Poisson's ratio and attain increasing con- To characterize the thermally tunable mechanical properties, com-
cerns of researchers [31]. Herein, a novel hybrid configuration, pression tests were conducted on the printed SMP metamaterial at dif-
AuxHex metamaterial [22], which consists of periodic expansion ferent temperatures. The deformation mode of the SMP metamaterial at
of auxetic and hexagonal honeycomb lattices, is designed. Under 30 °C and 70 °C is depicted in Fig. 5(a)(b). It is shown that the deforma-
compression loads, the expansion deformation of the hexagon tion progress of the metamaterial could be divided into three stages.
structure just compensates for the shrinkage deformation of the First, from A to C, all unit cells in the metamaterial deform uniformly.
re-entrant hexagonal structure in the lateral direction. The entire The hexagon width increases while the re-entrant hexagon width de-
metamaterial width keeps constant, showing zero Poisson's ratio. creases equally in the unit cell. The entire specimen shows zero-

3
K. Liu, L. Han, W. Hu et al. Materials and Design 196 (2020) 109153

Fig. 3. (a) the deformation of a hexagon honeycomb, re-entrant honeycomb and AuxHex structure; (b) the designed geometry of the zero Poisson's ratio metamaterial.

Poisson's ratio. The second stage ranges from Point C to E. Buckling dis- (d), with temperature decreasing from 70 °C to 30 °C，SEA at 50% strain
tortion takes place from the re-entrant hexagon edge and gradually increases 28 times, from 0.014 J/g to 0.397 J/g. In addition, finite element
evolves into the interior of the specimen. After Point E, the metamaterial simulation results are compared with experimental ones in Fig. 5, in-
is compacted into densification and the stress curve rises dramatically. cluding stress-strain curves and SEA. It is indicated that simulation re-
Fig. 5(c) compares stress-strain curves of the metamaterial at 30 °C, sults agree well with experiments and the forecasting precision is
45 °C, 60 °C, and 70 °C. The elastic modulus obtained from the stress– larger than 85%.
strain curve is 2.2 MPa at 30 °C. In contrast, it is only 0.043 kPa at To investigate the repeatable property of the metamaterial under
70 °C, showing 50 times decrease in stiffness, because SMP undergoes multiple loading cycles, two consecutive compression tests are carried
a dramatic stiffness change within the testing temperature range out at different temperatures. When the first compression terminates
around its Tg. Furthermore, the plateau stress of the stress-strain curve at a prescribed temperature, the metamaterial is unloaded and heated
drops significantly as the temperature increases from 30 °C to 70 °C, in- to 70 °C to recover its original shape. Afterwards, the compression ex-
dicating a large modulation in energy absorption. It is shown in Fig. 5(a) periment is performed repeatedly. Fig. 6 shows the stress-strain curves
(b) that the metamaterial is compacted to densification at approxi- during two consecutive compression cycles. When the testing tempera-
mately 50% strain. Therefore, in present work, specific energy absorp- ture is lower than Tg, such as 30 °C and 45 °C, the plateau stress in the
tion (SEA) at 50% strain is utilized to quantitatively analyze the second compression cycle is obviously larger than that in the first
energy-absorption capability of the metamaterial. As depicted in Fig. 5 cycle. This is because the first compression test leads to irreversible
damage in some unit cells of the metamaterial. When it comes to the
Table 1 second compression cycle, unit cells with invisible damage deform
Geometry parameters of the designed metamaterial. asymmetrically and buckling distortion appears much earlier. The fold-
ing and rotation of buckled cells lead to dramatic stiffness increase in
l1 θ1 h t Number of unit cells Specimen width
the loading direction and then much higher plateau stresses. As demon-
4 mm 120° 6 mm 0.5 mm 3*6 72 mm strated in Fig. 6(c), in the first compression cycle, buckling distortion
l2 θ2 h2 Specimen height Specimen thickness
starts at Point C (20% strain) and develops from the edge to the interior
of the specimen. However, buckling has already taken place at Point B
4 mm 60° 8 mm 47 mm 15 mm
(10% strain) in the second cycle and buckled cells distributes at both

Fig. 4. Shape programming and recovery cycles of a SMP microlattice. Shape programing through heating, deformation and cooling, and shape recovery to its original by thermal excitation.

4
K. Liu, L. Han, W. Hu et al.
Fig. 5. (a) deformation process of the zero-Poisson's ratio metamaterial under compression at 30 °C and (b) at 70 °C; (c) compressive strain-stress curves and (d) SEA at 50%stain at
different temperatures.
the edge and the interior in the specimen. When the temperature is pre-
scribed at 70 °C, higher than the glass transition temperature, the stress-
strain curves of two compression cycles almost overlap. It is illustrated
that the damage induced in the first compression cycle is negligible,
even if the metamaterial has been compacted into densification in the
first cycle. It is worth noting that the proposed zero-Poisson’ ratio
metamaterial could be compressed at 70 °C repeatedly.
3.2. Cylindrical metamaterial design and buckling distortion reduction
Compared with positive or negative Poisson's ratio materials, zero-
Poisson's ratio materials does not expand or shrink in the lateral direc-
tion under compression, thus generally, less local stress concentration
will be induced. The stress in the zero-Poisson's ratio metamaterial
does not rise sharply in a wide range of compression strain, showing
5
Materials and Design 196 (2020) 109153
gentle and high energy absorbing capacity. This is valuable for the
metamaterial to be used as a special energy-absorbing protector.
As stated in Section 3.1 Fig. 5(b), buckling distortion takes place at
about 10% strain in the metamaterial under compression loads at
70 °C. Buckling distortion not only destroys the zero-Poisson's ratio re-
sponse of AuxHex unit cells, but also leads to higher plateau stress and
changes the gentle energy-absorbing capability of the metamaterial.
Considering that buckling distortion occurs from the re-entrant hexa-
gon edge of the metamaterial as shown in Fig. 5(a)(b), a cylindrical de-
sign is proposed to eliminate the edge effect on the buckling behavior of
the metamaterial. As shown in Fig. 7(a), a mesh with 4 × 4 units was
first printed and then rolled to a cylinder along its minor axis. The com-
pressive deformation and stress-strain curve of the cylindrical
metamaterl at 70 °C are demonstrated in Fig. 7(b). The compression
curve is also composed of linearly increasing, plateau and densification
K. Liu, L. Han, W. Hu et al. Materials and Design 196 (2020) 109153

Fig. 6. (a) stress-strain curves and (b) SEA at 50% strain in two consecutive compression cycles at different temperatures; (c) deformation of the metamaterial at various strains at 30 °C in
the first and (d) second compression cycle.

Fig. 7. (a) schematic of the zero-Poisson's ratio cylindrical metamaterial; (b) deformation progress and stress-strain curve of the cylindrical metamaterial at 70 °C; (c) stress-strain curves
and (d) SEA of the cylindrical metamaterial at various temperatures.

6
K. Liu, L. Han, W. Hu et al.
stages. The advantage of the cylindrical metamaterial is that buckling
distortion almost disappears in the whole compression progress be-
cause edge effect is eliminated. All unit cells deform uniformly and
show zero-Poisson's ratio over large deformation of up to 50% strain.
Simulated and experimental stress-strain curves of the cylindrical
metamaterial at various temperatures are demonstrated in Fig. 7(c),
and relevant SEA at 50% strain is listed in Fig. 7(d). It is shown that
simulation results agree well with experiments. The cylindrical
metamaterial also shows tunable properties dependent on temperature.
From 70 °C to 30 °C, the stress-strain curve rises dramatically and SEA at
50% strain increase about 33 times, from 0.001 J/g to 0.295 J/g. Because
unit cells in the cylindrical metamaterial do not buckle during compres-
sion, stress grows up more gently in the stress-strain curve than that of
planar metamaterials. Thus SEA of the cylindrical metamaterial is
slightly lower than that of the planar metamaterial in Section 3.1 at
the same temperature.
Consecutive compression tests are also carried out for the cylin-
drical metamaterial at different temperatures, as shown in Fig. 8
(a). The stress-strain curves in the second compression cycle coin-
cide with the curves in the first cycle, at both 60 °C and 70 °C. It is
shown that the cylinder could be used repeatedly without mechani-
cal performance degradation at these temperatures. At low temper-
atures, for example 30 °C, the plateau stress of the second loading
cycle is higher than that of the first cycle. But the mechanical dis-
crepancy in two consecutive compression tests is smaller than that
for planar metamaterials in Section 3.1, because no buckling distor-
tion takes place in cylindrical metamaterials, and less damage is
induced in the first compression cycle.
3.3. Gradient design and local deformation response of the metamaterial
Besides temperature, the thickness of cell walls t is another signifi-
cant factor that dominates the mechanical response of the
metamaterial. It is described by the relative density of the metamaterial,
as the unit cell configuration is fixed in present study. It is shown in
Fig. 9 that at the same temperature, effective modulus and SEA increase
almost linearly with relative density on a logarithmic scale. Inspired
from the mechanical sensitivity on the cell-wall thickness, a wall-
thickness gradient design is applied to the 4D printed SMP metamatrial,
to achieve controlled local deformation and adjustable stress-strain
curve. Localized deformation is one of the most important damage
modes for honeycomb or other metamaterials. Its location and deforma-
tion magnitude are random and difficult to predict because it is sensitive
to defects. The gradient design method based on programmed lattice-
wall thickness can realize controllable and predictable local deforma-
tion for the zero-Poisson's ratio metamaterial, and eliminate the
Fig. 8. (a) stress-strain curves of two consecutive compression cycles at different temperatures for the cylindrical metamateril; (b) SEA at 50% strain of two consecutive compression cycles
at different temperatures.
7
Materials and Design 196 (2020) 109153
randomness of local deformation due to defect sensitivity. This is valu-
able for the design of software robots and functional devices.
As demonstrated in Fig. 10(a), 0.7 mm thick cells and 0.4 mm thick
cells are arranged alternatively in the loading direction. Other lattice pa-
rameters are same with the metamaterial in Section 3.2. As shown in
Fig. 10(b)(c), programmed local deformation takes place in the gradient
cylindrical metamaterial. From A to C, 0.4 mm thick unit cells deform lo-
cally while there is no deformation in 0.7 mm thick cells. At Point C,
0.4 mm thick cells are completely compacted, and 0.7 mm thick cells
start to deform. The slope of the stress-strain curve in stage CE is
much higher than that of stage AC because cell stiffness increases with
its wall thickness. After Point E, the specimen is compacted to densifica-
tion. In the whole compression progress, 0.4 mm thick and 0.7 mm thick
cells are compressed in sequence, and the stress-strain curve of the gra-
dient metamateril (0.7 mm/0.4 mm) lies between the curves of 0.4 mm
thick metamaterial and 0.7 mm thick metamaterial. The SEA of the gra-
dient cylindrical metamaterial is 0.0095 J/g, approximately the average
of SEA of 0.4 mm and 0.7 mm thick metamaterial cylinders. In summary,
the wall-thickness gradient metamaterial show controllable, orderly,
defect-insensitive local deformation, leading to programmable mechan-
ical response under quasi-static uniform compression loads.
3.4. Vibration-isolation capability of the metamaterial
In automobile or aviation industrial applications, it is necessary to
evaluate the response of structures to vibration. Nowadays, isolating vi-
bration using metamaterials has become a hot research topic [33–36]. In
this paper, the vibration isolation performance of the SMP
reconfigurable metamaterial was investigated by a home-made vibra-
tion testing system, as shown in Fig. 11(a).
The metamaterial was glued to two aluminium plates, and a 500 g
weight was placed on the top plate to apply pressure to the whole appara-
tus. A vibration exciter was utilized to produce vibration loads from the
bottom plate, transmitting to the metamaterial cylinder and then to the
top plate. The amplitude of the vibration acceleration on the bottom
plate and the top plate is measured by sensors, respectively, and is re-
corded as the input and output signals (ainput,aoutput). Two identical
metamaterial cylinders were used in vibration experiments, in order to im-
prove the stability of the apparatus and prevent collapse at high tempera-
tures. The input and output vibration amplitude with time and frequency
at 30 °C is demonstrated in Fig. 11(b) (c). Vibration level difference (VLD)
is calculated to describe the vibration isolation capability of the
metamaterial.
 
VLD ¼ 20lg aoutput =ainput ð5Þ
K. Liu, L. Han, W. Hu et al. Materials and Design 196 (2020) 109153

Fig. 9. (a) the effective modules and (b) SEA at 50% strain for the metamaterial with different relative density.

Fig. 10. (a) representative unit cell of the wall-thickness gradient design; (b) the deformation progress, (c) stress-stain curves, and (c) SEA at 50% strain of the wall-thickness gradient
cylindrical metamaterial.

It is observed in Fig. 11 (d) that from 43 Hz to 63 Hz, VLD is negative,
that is, the amplitude of vibration acceleration is reduced when the vi-
bration passes through the metamaterial. The metamaterial shows fas-
cinating vibration isolation capability at low frequency before
resonance. After 63 Hz, VLD increases with frequency and peaks at the
resonance frequency of 86.6 Hz. Then VLD falls down and changes
from positive to negative after 128 Hz, producing vibration isolation at
a high frequency interval.
Negative VLD at low frequency before resonance region is a valu-
able characteristic of the metamaterial cylinder and could not be
seen in traditional vibration isolation components, for example,
springs. As for springs, VLD first increases with frequency and then
drops down after the resonance frequency, as demonstrated in
Fig. 11(e). Thus it is difficult for springs to reduce vibration at low
frequency. This could only be realized by reducing the spring stiff-
ness to decrease the resonance frequency and get negative VLD at a

8
K. Liu, L. Han, W. Hu et al. Materials and Design 196 (2020) 109153

Fig. 11. (a) the testing system to evaluate the vibration isolation capability of the metamaterial; (b) the input and output amplitude of the vibration acceleration with time and
(c) frequency at 30 °C; (d) vibration level difference (VLD) of common springs and (e) the metamaterial at 30 °C; (f) VLD of the metamaterial at different temperatures.

target low frequency. In other words, vibration-reduction capability properties and vibration isolation capability is reported. Conclusions
is attained at the expense of the degradation of spring stiffness and are summarized as follows.
strength. However, the metamaterial naturally shows negative VLD
1) The 4D printed SMP metamaterial with zero-Poisson's ratio effect
at low frequency before resonance, and could reduce vibration with-
has shape programming and automatic deployment functions that
out stiffness or strength loss. This may have broad application pros-
can remember any shape during the deformation process and can
pects in automotive and industry fields.
be self-driven to deployment.
In addition, the vibration-isolation performance of the metamaterial
2) The adaptive metamaterial could automatically adjust stiffness,
cylinder was tested at different temperatures. It is shown in Fig. 11
energy absorption and vibration-isolation capability accor-
(f) that the VLD curve shifts to the left from 30 °C to 60 °C. The resonance
ding to thermal excitation, with modulus changing range more
frequency decreases pronouncedly about 36%, from 86.6 Hz to 55.4 Hz.
than 50 times in only 40 °C temperature decrease. Besides,
The metamaterial shows thermally adjustable vibration-absorbing
the smart metamaterial can be used repeatedly at high
capability.
temperatures.
3) A cylindrical design is proposed to eliminate the edge effect of the
4. Conclusions
metamaterial. No buckling distortion takes place in unit cells, and
the cylindrical metamaterial shows zero-Poisson's ratio over large
In this work, a 4D printed zero-Poisson's ratio metamaterial with
deformation of up to 50% strain.
programmable shapes, deployable functions, adjustable mechanical

9
K. Liu, L. Han, W. Hu et al.
4) Based on the gradient design method, controllable and defect-
insensitive local deformation can be achieved in the metamaterial,
leading to programmable mechanical response. It is valuable for
the design of soft robots and other intelligent devices that require
controlled zero-Poisson's ratio deformation.
5) The metamaterial shows negative vibration level difference (VLD) at
low frequency before resonance region, indicating excellent vibra-
tion isolation capability at low frequency without stiffness or
strength degradation. Furthermore, the vibration absorbing capabil-
ity of the metamaterial is also thermally adjustable.
Credit author statement
Ran Tao: Methodology. Kai Liu: Mechanical Experiments, Writing
and Reviewing. Shengxin Zhu: Conceptualization. Zhishuai Wan: Vibra-
tion Experiments. Le Han: Editing. Wenxia Hu: SEA Calculation. Longtao
Ji: Supervision. Xudong Yang: Finite Element Simulation. Yuling Wei:
Data Processing. Zongjie Dai: Image Editing. Zeang Zhao: Specimen
Preparation. Zhen Li: Project administration. Pengfei Wang: 4D Printing.
Declaration of Competing Interest
None.
Acknowledgments
This work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation
of China: Grant No. 11902032, Grant No. 11902030 and Grant No.
11572109.
Appendix A. Supplementary data
Supplementary data to this article can be found online at https://doi.
org/10.1016/j.matdes.2020.109153.
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