Optimization of a material with a negative stiffness provided by an inherent bistable element

It is known from literature that extreme damping can be achieved in materials incorporating negative stiffness inclusions. In this paper a material realization of such a structure is presented and its behaviour is analysed. Polyethylene foam sheets are utilized as a base material and a negative stiffness component is supplied by an inherent bistable element introduced with the help of curved cuts. The damping performance can be optimized by a shape optimization provided a reliable finite element model is available. This paper gives guidelines to material fitting of such a structure, namely two methods are presented and a suitable material model is identified. The work presented is done in continuation of Heczko et al. (in press). © 2015 Taylor & Francis Group, London.