Mechanical behavior of composite gel periodic structures with the pattern transformation

When the periodic cellular structure is loaded or swelling beyond the critical value,the structure may undergo a pattern transformation owing to the local elasticinstabilities, thus leading to structure collapses and the change to anewconfiguration. Based on this deformation-triggered pattern, we have developed thenovel composite gel material. This designed material is a type of architecture materialwhich achieves special mechanical properties. In this paper, the mechanical behavior of the composite gel periodic structurewith pattern transformation has been studied through numerical simulations. When pattern transformation occurs, it can result in a different elastic relationshipcompared with the material at untransformed state. From the obtained nominal stress versusnominal strainbehavior, the Poisson’s ratio and corresponding deformed structure patterns, we investigate the effects ofthe uniformly distributed gel inclusions oncomposite material, thereby having a better understanding ofthe characteristics of composite materials. We hope this study can provide future perspectives for thenew composite material.