Design and mechanical properties of 3D-printed auxetic honeycomb structure

[Display omitted] •Auxetic and non-auxetic structures were tested under low cycle compression.•Optimal values found for inter-strut inclination angles for re-entrant auxetic structure.•Material mechanical properties were found to affect the apparent Poisson's ratio.•Auxetic structures show good energy absorption and can be used as “dampers”. The combination of theoretical calculations, computer simulations, and experimental evaluation of Poisson's ratio was carried out for re-entrant honeycomb auxetic structure. Optimal honeycomb cell parameters were determined for 3D-printed samples made from thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU). The low-cycle compression tests of 3D-printed re-entrant honeycomb auxetic samples showed that the structure based on auxetic hexagonal cell can withstand almost 1.75 times more very low cycle fatigue cycles than the similar non-auxetic structure. Neither failure nor layer delamination in 3D structures were detected in the auxetic sample after 500 compression cycles. 3D-printed auxetic structures offer a promising candidate for applications in medicine and sports.