Multilayer Composite Materials with Non-Usual Poisson's Ratios

Most of usual materials exhibit Poisson's ratio comprised between 0 and 0.5. But, for some kind of cellular materials, or for some stacking sequences of unidirectional plies, a composite material can exhibit negative or greater than 0.5 Poisson's ratios. In this paper, a study of different stacking sequences such as [±β/±θ]s plies made from highly anisotropic fibre pre-preg is presented. A special computer programme has been developed for this purpose. Eighteen stacking sequences, including the [±θ] ones, have been computed. The results show that at least one of Poisson's ratios varies between -0.8 to +0.4. Such kind of materials may find applications for particular cases, as their strength is significantly increased by this phenomenon.