Fractal design of 3D-printing mechanical metamaterial undergoing tailorable zero Poisson’s ratio

With the development of mechanical metamaterials, structures with large and nonlinear deformations have attracted great research passions for their increasingly applications. Although it has been studied for decades, the mechanics of conflict between large deformation with non-buckling has not been well understood. In this study, a new type of mechanical metamaterial, of which the large deformation is achieved without buckling, has been proposed to achieve the zero Poisson’s ratio using fractal design. Effects of fractal iteration ( i ) and connection angle ( α ) on the Poisson’s ratio and mechanical stress-strain behaviors of 3D printing mechanical metamaterial were studied by finite element analysis and experimental tests. Finally, constitutive relationships among loading force, Poisson’s ratio, iteration time and connection angle have been explored and discussed to achieve a large and non-buckling deformation. © 2023 IOP Publishing Ltd.