Additively Manufactured Auxetic Structures: A Review
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.54097/6hdhp320Keywords:
3D printing, Auxetic structures, MetamaterialsAbstract
Auxetic structures exhibit mechanical behaviors that are significantly different from those of conventional materials. They expand laterally under tensile loading and contract laterally under compressive loading, which provides advantages in energy absorption, impact resistance, indentation resistance, and structural stability. In recent years, the rapid development of additive manufacturing, particularly 3D printing, has enabled the precise fabrication of complex auxetic structures that are difficult to achieve using traditional manufacturing methods, thereby greatly promoting related research and applications. This paper reviews the research progress of 3D printed auxetic structures. First, common 3D printing technologies used for fabricating complex structures, including fused deposition modeling (FDM), stereolithography (SLA), and selective laser sintering (SLS), are introduced. Then, the development history and structural types of auxetic structures are summarized. Furthermore, recent advances in the structural design and mechanical performance of 3D printed auxetic structures are reviewed, along with their applications in impact protection, aerospace, biomedical engineering, and vibration isolation. Finally, the main challenges and future development trends of 3D printed auxetic structures are discussed. The integration of advanced manufacturing technologies with structural optimization is expected to further expand the application potential of auxetic structures.
Downloads
References
[1] Gibson I, Rosen D, Stucker B, et al. Additive manufacturing technologies [M]. Cham, Switzerland: Springer, 2021.
[2] Ngo T D, Kashani A, Imbalzano G, et al. Additive manufacturing (3D printing): A review of materials, methods, applications and challenges [J]. Composites Part B: Engineering, 2018, 143: 172-196.
[3] Gu D D, Meiners W, Wissenbach K, et al. Laser additive manufacturing of metallic components: materials, processes and mechanisms [J]. International materials reviews, 2012, 57(3): 133-164.
[4] Zhang H, Huang J, Liu C, et al. Fabricating pyramidal lattice structures of 304 L stainless steel by wire arc additive manufacturing [J]. Materials, 2020, 13(16): 3482.
[5] Greaves G N, Greer A L, Lakes R S, et al. Poisson's ratio and modern materials [J]. Nature materials, 2011, 10(11): 823-837.
[6] Evans K E, Alderson A. Auxetic materials: functional materials and structures from lateral thinking [J]. Advanced materials, 2000, 12(9): 617-628.
[7] Alderson A, Alderson K L. Auxetic materials [J]. Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part G: Journal of Aerospace Engineering, 2007, 221(4): 565-575.
[8] Love A E H. A treatise on the mathematical theory of elasticity [M]. Cambridge university press, 2013.
[9] Lakes R. Foam structures with a negative Poisson's ratio [J]. Science, 1987, 235(4792): 1038-1040.
[10] Evans K E, Nkansah M A, Hutchinson I J, et al. Molecular network design [J]. Nature, 1991, 353(6340): 124-124.
[11] Alderson A. A triumph of lateral thought [J]. Chemistry & Industry, 1999, 17(491): 384-391.
[12] Grima J N, Evans K E. Auxetic behavior from rotating squares [J]. Journal of materials science letters, 2000, 19(17): 1563-1565.
[13] Kolken H M A, Zadpoor A A. Auxetic mechanical metamaterials [J]. RSC advances, 2017, 7(9): 5111-5129.
[14] Ren X, Das R, Tran P, et al. Auxetic metamaterials and structures: a review [J]. Smart materials and structures, 2018, 27(2): 023001.
[15] Herzog D, Seyda V, Wycisk E, et al. Additive manufacturing of metals [J]. Acta Materialia, 2016, 117: 371-392.
[16] Frazier W E. Metal additive manufacturing: a review [J]. Journal of Materials Engineering and performance, 2014, 23(6): 1917-1928.
[17] Turner B. N., Strong R., Gold S. A. A review of melt extrusion additive manufacturing processes: I. Process design and modeling [J]. Rapid prototyping journal, 2014, 20(3): 192-204.
[18] Melchels F P W, Domingos M A N, Klein T J, et al. Additive manufacturing of tissues and organs [J]. Progress in polymer science, 2012, 37(8): 1079-1104.
[19] Schwerdtfeger J, Heinl P, Singer R F, et al. Auxetic cellular structures through selective electron‐beam melting [J]. physica status solidi (b), 2010, 247(2): 269-272.
[20] Kruth J P, Froyen L, Van Vaerenbergh J, et al. Selective laser melting of iron-based powder [J]. Journal of materials processing technology, 2004, 149(1-3): 616-622.
[21] Koniok D A, Voitsekhovsky K V, Pleskachevsky Y M, et al. Materials with negative Poisson’s ratio (The review) [J]. Journal on Composite Mechanics and Design, 2004, 10(1): 35-69.
[22] He C, Liu P, Griffin A C, et al. Morphology and deformation behaviour of a liquid crystalline polymer containing laterally attached pentaphenyl rods [J]. Macromolecular Chemistry and Physics, 2005, 206(2): 233-239.
[23] Ma Z D. Three-dimensional auxetic structures and applications thereof: U.S. Patent 7,910,193 [P]. 2011-3-22.
[24] Choi J B, Lakes R S. Fracture toughness of re-entrant foam materials with a negative Poisson's ratio: experiment and analysis [J]. International Journal of fracture, 1996, 80(1): 73-83.
[25] Herakovich C T, Aboudi J, Lee S W, et al. Damage in composite laminates: effects of transverse cracks [J]. Mechanics of materials, 1988, 7(2): 91-107.
[26] Theocaris P S, Stavroulakis G E, Panagiotopoulos P D. Negative Poisson's ratios in composites with star-shaped inclusions: a numerical homogenization approach [J]. Archive of applied mechanics, 1997, 67(4): 274-286.
[27] Wei G, Edwards S F. Poisson ratio in composites of auxetics [J]. Physical Review E, 1998, 58(5): 6173.
[28] Stagni L. Effective transverse elastic moduli of a composite reinforced with multilayered hollow-cored fibers [J]. Composites science and technology, 2001, 61(12): 1729-1734.
[29] Bowick M J, Cacciuto A, Thorleifsson G, et al. Universality classes of self-avoiding fixed-connectivity membranes [J]. The European Physical Journal E, 2001, 5(2): 149-160.
[30] Baughman R H, Zakhidov A A, de Heer W A. Carbon nanotubes--the route toward applications [J]. Science, 2002, 297(5582): 787-792.
[31] Cazzani A, Rovati M. Extrema of Young’s modulus for cubic and transversely isotropic solids [J]. International Journal of Solids and Structures, 2003, 40(7): 1713-1744.
[32] Bezazi A, Scarpa F. Tensile fatigue of conventional and negative Poisson’s ratio open cell PU foams [J]. International Journal of Fatigue, 2009, 31(3): 488-494.
[33] Bianchi M, Scarpa F, Smith C W. Shape memory behaviour in auxetic foams: mechanical properties [J]. Acta Materialia, 2010, 58(3): 858-865.
[34] Gibson L J, Ashby M F, Harley B A. Cellular materials in nature and medicine [M]. Cambridge University Press, 2010.
[35] Lakes R S, Witt R. Making and characterizing negative Poisson's ratio materials [J]. International Journal of Mechanical Engineering Education, 2002, 30(1): 50-58.
[36] Masters I G, Evans K E. Models for the elastic deformation of honeycombs [J]. Composite structures, 1996, 35(4): 403-422.
[37] Bertoldi K, Vitelli V, Christensen J, et al. Flexible mechanical metamaterials [J]. Nature Reviews Materials, 2017, 2(11): 1-11.
[38] Zadpoor A A. Mechanical meta-materials [J]. Materials Horizons, 2016, 3(5): 371-381.
[39] Shahmorad A, Hashemi R, Rajabi M. Study of novel 3D-Printed auxetic metamaterial structures under compressive loading: design, simulation, and experiment [J]. Scientific Reports, 2025, 15(1): 38033.
[40] Hasanzadeh R. A new polymeric hybrid auxetic structure additively manufactured by fused filament fabrication 3D printing: machine learning-based energy absorption prediction and optimization [J]. Polymers, 2024, 16(24): 3565.
[41] Pellegrini A, Palmieri M E, Lavecchia F, et al. Auxetic behavior of 3D-printed structure made in acrylonitrile butadiene styrene and carbon fiber-reinforced polyamide [J]. Progress in Additive Manufacturing, 2024, 9(2): 461-469.
[42] He P, Wang S, Zhang M, et al. Compression performance of 3D-printed thermoplastic auxetic structures [J]. Thin-Walled Structures, 2024, 197: 111558.
[43] Taşdemir M, Toktaş İ, Motameni A, et al. Experimental and numerical investigation of mechanical properties of PLA-based auxetic structures [J]. The International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology, 2025, 137(1): 83-103.
[44] Etemadi E, Zamani A M M, Scarpa F, et al. Modified re-entrant auxetic metamaterials with energy absorption enhancement [J]. Materials Today Communications, 2024, 38: 108079.
[45] Liu P, Liu J. An experimental study on 3D-printed continuous fiber-reinforced composite auxetic structures [J]. Materials Science in Additive Manufacturing, 2023, 2(4): 2159.
[46] Geng X, Yao Y, Huang H, et al. Mechanical and biological characteristics of 3D-printed auxetic structure in bone tissue engineering [J]. Journal of Biomechanics, 2025, 184: 112685.
[47] Saddek A A, Lin T K, Chang W K, et al. Metamaterials of auxetic geometry for seismic energy absorption [J]. Materials, 2023, 16(15): 5499.
[48] Alomarah A, Yuan Y, Ruan D. A bio-inspired auxetic metamaterial with two plateau regimes: compressive properties and energy absorption [J]. Thin-Walled Structures, 2023, 192: 111175.
[49] Cao E, Dong Z, Jia B, et al. Inverse design of isotropic auxetic metamaterials via a data-driven strategy [J]. Materials Horizons, 2025, 12(13): 4884-4900.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 International Journal of Advanced Engineering and Technology Research

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.










