Modelling of auxetic foam embedded brittle materials and structures

Building structures use brittle materials extensively. Under impact or blast loads these structures perform poorly due to tensile strains caused by Poisson’s effect normal to the direction of such loadings. Auxetic materials exhibit negative Poisson’s ratio – a property which can be exploited to eliminate those tensile strains. In this study, Auxetic layers embedded masonry is modelled using a representative volume element (RVE) with periodic boundary conditions and an explicit finite element (EFE) modelling method for a boundary value problem of a masonry wall with an Auxetic foam rendered face is subject to out-of-plane load. The RVE is limited to in-plane loads only and hence subjected to in-plane shear and compression and the EFE was used to assess the performance under out-of-plane loading. The results show significant post-yield strain hardening under axial compression and in-plane shear and high increase in capacity for walls under out of plane flexure.