Negative Poisson’s Ratio

Engr. Faisal-ur-Rehman Engr. Saeed Ahmad

 Poisson’s Ratio
• Poisson's ratio , also called
the Poisson coefficient.
 trans 
   x
• It is the ratio of transverse  axial y
contraction strain to
longitudinal extension strain in
a stretched bar.

• Since most common materials

become thinner in cross
section when stretched.

• Poisson's ratio for them is

positive.
 Poisson’s Ratio
• The reason is that inter-atomic bonds
realign with deformation.

• Stretching of normal honeycomb, shown on

the right, illustrates the concept.

• Normal polymer foams or cellular solids,

above left, have a positive Poisson's ratio.
 Poisson ratio of various Materials
Material Poisson’s Ratio Material Poisson’s Ratio

Rubber ~ 0.50 Steel 0.27-0.30

saturated clay 0.40-0.50 cast iron 0.21-0.26
Magnesium 0.35 Sand 0.20-0.45
Titanium 0.34 Concrete 0.2
Copper 0.33 Glass 0.18-0.3
aluminum-alloy 0.33 Foam 0.10 to 0.40
Clay 0.30-0.45 Cork ~ 0.00
stainless steel 0.30-0.31 Auxetics Negative
 Negative Poisson’s Ratio
• Re-entrant polymer foams
developed in our
laboratory have a
negative Poisson's ratio.

• After our original article

appeared in Science, they
were called anti-rubber by
James Glieck of the New
York Times.

• and were called auxetic

(or auxetics, or auxetic
materials) [1]
 Negative Poisson’s Ratio
• and were called dilational
by mathematician Graeme
Milton of the University of
Utah.

• Negative Poisson's ratio

chiral honeycomb, above
center, unrolls when
stretched.

• Negative Poisson's ratio

re-entrant honeycomb
unfolds when stretched.
 Negative Poisson’s Ratio
• A novel foam structure is
presented, which exhibits
a negative Poisson's ratio.

• Such a material expands

laterally (gets fatter)
when stretched.

• See the upper foam

(cellular solid) in the
above image.
 Negative Poisson’s Ratio
• Such behavior is in contrast to ordinary materials
such as the lower foam in the image above.

• For example, rubber has a Poisson's ratio

approaching the isotropic upper limit 0.5 and
therefore becomes substantially thinner when
stretched.

• Negative Poisson ratio solids easily undergo

volume changes.
 Reference
• [1] by K. Evans and co-workers in Exeter,
England, and F. Scarpa and co-workers in
Bristol, England.

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poisson's_rati
o
• http://silver.neep.wisc.edu/~lakes/Poisson
.html