A Comprehensive Analysis of Mechanical Metamaterial Types and Applications Along with Challenges and Current Emerging Trends in Research
Main Article Content
Abstract
Mechanical metamaterials are a type of engineered materials that have micro and nano-scale structures, which are specifically designed to exhibit properties that are not typically found in natural or conventional materials. Unlike conventional materials, which have properties determined by the characteristics of the material itself, mechanical metamaterials obtain their mechanical behaviors from the specific organization of their substructures also known as unit cells. This study aims to provide a brief review of the mechanical properties of the mechanical metamaterials used for various industrial, medical, and robotic applications. Further, different types of mechanical metamaterials, such as lattice-based, topological, gradient, architected, Origami and Kirigami-inspired metamaterials, have been presented along with their applications in the field of soft robotics. Additionally, emerging trends and future directions point towards the development of more responsive, intelligent and sustainable mechanical metamaterials in the future.
Article Details

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
References
Bertoldi K, Vitelli V, Christensen J, Van Hecke M. Flexible mechanical metamaterials. Nature Reviews Materials. 2017;2(11):1–11.
Surjadi JU, Gao L, Du H, Li X, Xiong X, Fang NX, Lu Y. Mechanical metamaterials and their engineering applications. Advanced Engineering Materials. 2019;21(3):1800864.
Barchiesi E, Spagnuolo M, Placidi L. Mechanical metamaterials: a state of the art. Mathematics and Mechanics of Solids. 2019;24(1):212–234.
Florijn B, Coulais C, van Hecke M. Programmable mechanical metamaterials. Physical Review Letters. 2014;113(17):175503.
Lee JH, Singer JP, Thomas EL. Micro- and nanostructured mechanical metamaterials. Advanced Materials. 2012;24(36):4782–4810.
Zheng X, Lee H, Weisgraber TH, Shusteff M, DeOtte J, Duoss EB, Spadaccini CM. Ultralight, ultrastiff mechanical metamaterials. Science. 2014;344(6190):1373–1377.
Frenzel T, Kadic M, Wegener M. Three-dimensional mechanical metamaterials with a twist. Science. 2017;358(6366):1072–1074.
Bauer J, Meza LR, Schaedler TA, Schwaiger R, Zheng X, Valdevit L. Nanolattices: an emerging class of mechanical metamaterials. Advanced Materials. 2017;29(40):1701850.
Wu L, Wang Y, Chuang K, Wu F, Wang Q, Lin W, Jiang H. A brief review of dynamic mechanical metamaterials for mechanical energy manipulation. Materials Today. 2021;44:168–193.
Kolken HM, Zadpoor AA. Auxetic mechanical metamaterials. RSC Advances. 2017;7(9):5111–5129.
Wu W, Hu W, Qian G, Liao H, Xu X, Berto F. Mechanical design and multifunctional applications of chiral mechanical metamaterials: a review. Materials and Design. 2019;180:107950.
Shanian A, Jette FX, Salehii M, Pham MQ, Schaenzer M, Bourgeois G, Peitsch D. Application of multifunctional mechanical metamaterials. Advanced Engineering Materials. 2019;21(7):1900084.
Wang Z, Luan C, Liao G, Liu J, Yao X, Fu J. Progress in auxetic mechanical metamaterials: structures, characteristics, manufacturing methods, and applications. Advanced Engineering Materials. 2020;22(10):2000312.
Wu R, Roberts PC, Lyu S, Zheng F, Soutis C, Diver C, Deng Z. Lightweight self-forming super-elastic mechanical metamaterials with adaptive stiffness. Advanced Functional Materials. 2021;31(6):2008252.
Mizzi L, Spaggiari A. Lightweight mechanical metamaterials designed using hierarchical truss elements. Smart Materials and Structures. 2020;29(10):105036.
Zhai Z, Wu L, Jiang H. Mechanical metamaterials based on origami and kirigami. Applied Physics Reviews. 2021;8(4):041319.
Neville RM, Scarpa F, Pirrera A. Shape morphing kirigami mechanical metamaterials. Scientific Reports. 2016;6(1):31067.
Lv C, Krishnaraju D, Konjevod G, Yu H, Jiang H. Origami-based mechanical metamaterials. Scientific Reports. 2014;4(1):5979.
Sun Y, Ye W, Chen Y, Fan W, Feng J, Sareh P. Geometric design classification of kirigami-inspired metastructures and metamaterials. Structures. 2021;33:3633–3643.
Lvov VA, Senatov FS, Veveris AA, Skrybykina VA, Díaz Lantada A. Auxetic metamaterials for biomedical devices: current situation, main challenges, and research trends. Materials. 2022;15(4):1439.
Haag H, Dalton PD, Bloemen V. The synergy of biomimetic design strategies for tissue constructs. Advanced Functional Materials. 2022;32(32):2201414.
Zhalmuratova D, Chung HJ. Reinforced gels and elastomers for biomedical and soft robotics applications. ACS Applied Polymer Materials. 2020;2(3):1073–1091.
Melgarejo AD, Ramírez JL, Rubiano A. Auxetic material in biomedical applications: a systematic review. International Journal of Electrical and Computer Engineering. 2022;12(6):2088–8708.
Zeng Q, Zhao Z, Lei H, Wang P. A deep learning approach for inverse design of gradient mechanical metamaterials. International Journal of Mechanical Sciences. 2023;240:107920.
Zhang H, Chen P, Lin G, Sun W. A corrugated gradient mechanical metamaterial: lightweight, tunable auxeticity and enhanced specific energy absorption. Thin-Walled Structures. 2022;176:109355.
Jiang Y, Wang Q. Highly-stretchable 3D-architected mechanical metamaterials. Scientific Reports. 2016;6(1):34147.
Meza LR, Zelhofer AJ, Clarke N, Mateos AJ, Kochmann DM, Greer JR. Resilient 3D hierarchical architected metamaterials. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 2015;112(37):11502–11507.
Hu W, Cao X, Zhang X, Huang Z, Chen Z, Wu W, Fang D. Deformation mechanisms and mechanical performances of architected mechanical metamaterials with gyroid topologies: synchrotron X-ray radiation in-situ compression experiments and 3D image-based finite element analysis. Extreme Mechanics Letters. 2021;44:101229.
Al-Ketan O, Rezgui R, Rowshan R, Du H, Fang NX, Abu Al-Rub RK. Microarchitected stretching-dominated mechanical metamaterials with minimal surface topologies. Advanced Engineering Materials. 2018;20(9):1800029.
Srivatsa S, Kumar RS, Selva D, Silberstein MN. Examining the impact of asymmetry in lattice-based mechanical metamaterials. Mechanics of Materials. 2022;172:104386.
Tsushima N, Higuchi R. Stiffness and strength evaluation of lattice-based mechanical metamaterials by decoupled two-scale analysis. Materials Today Communications. 2022;31:103598.
Tsushima N, Higuchi R, Arizono H, Tamayama M. Multi-scale aeroelastic analysis of wings with lattice-based mechanical metamaterials. AIAA Scitech. 2021:1507.
Usta F, Scarpa F, Türkmen HS, Johnson P, Perriman AW, Chen Y. Multiphase lattice metamaterials with enhanced mechanical performance. Smart Materials and Structures. 2021;30(2):025014.
Yu X, Zhou J, Liang H, Jiang Z, Wu L. Mechanical metamaterials associated with stiffness, rigidity and compressibility: a brief review. Progress in Materials Science. 2018;94:114–173.
Abou-Ali AM, Lee DW, Abu Al-Rub RK. On the effect of lattice topology on mechanical properties of SLS additively manufactured sheet-, ligament-, and strut-based polymeric metamaterials. Polymers. 2022;14(21):4583.
Zhao S, Chen J, Chang Z, Huang G. Microstructure realization of a lattice-based polar solid for arbitrary elastic waveguiding. Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids. 2023;173:105226.
Wu G, Cho Y, Choi IS, Ge D, Li J, Han HN, Yang S. Directing the deformation paths of soft metamaterials with prescribed asymmetric units. Advanced Materials. 2015;27(17):2747–2752.
Xin L, Siyuan Y, Harry L, Minghui L, Yanfeng C. Topological mechanical metamaterials: a brief review. Current Opinion in Solid State and Materials Science. 2020;24(5):100853.
Rocklin DZ, Zhou S, Sun K, Mao X. Transformable topological mechanical metamaterials. Nature Communications. 2017;8(1):14201.
Duan G, Zheng S, Lin ZK, Jiao J, Liu J, Jiang Z, Xia B. Numerical and experimental investigation of second-order mechanical topological insulators. Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids. 2023;174:105251.
Süsstrunk R, Huber SD. Classification of topological phonons in linear mechanical metamaterials. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 2016;113(33):E4767–E4775.
Hu Z, Wei Z, Wang K, Chen Y, Zhu R, Huang G, Hu G. Engineering zero modes in transformable mechanical metamaterials. Nature Communications. 2023;14(1):1266.
Frenzel T, Köpfler J, Jung E, Kadic M, Wegener M. Ultrasound experiments on acoustical activity in chiral mechanical metamaterials. Nature Communications. 2019;10(1):3384.
Tan X, Chen S, Wang B, Tang J, Wang L, Zhu S, Xu P. Real-time tunable negative stiffness mechanical metamaterial. Extreme Mechanics Letters. 2020;41:100990.
Zhang P, Qi D, Xue R, Liu K, Wu W, Li Y. Mechanical design and energy absorption performances of rational gradient lattice metamaterials. Composite Structures. 2021;277:114606.
Salem T, Xie X, Jiao P, Lajnef N. Maneuverable post-buckling of extensible mechanical metamaterials using functionally graded materials and carbon nanotubes. Thin-Walled Structures. 2021;159:107264.
Wang L, An MR, Liu HT. Compression spin bio-inspired arm: a conceptual model based on compression–torsion cubic mechanical metamaterials with variable cross-section. Extreme Mechanics Letters. 2020;41:101069.
Hamzehei R, Zolfagharian A, Dariushi S, Bodaghi M. 3D-printed bio-inspired zero Poisson’s ratio graded metamaterials with high energy absorption performance. Smart Materials and Structures. 2022;31(3):035001.
Bossart A, Dykstra DM, Van der Laan J, Coulais C. Oligomodal metamaterials with multifunctional mechanics. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 2021;118(21):e2018610118.
Han D, Li W, Liu M, Chen X, Zhang L, Chen X. Controllable deformation modulated multifunctionality for phase-gradient metamaterials. Laser and Photonics Reviews. 2023;17:2300465.
Li Q, Yang D. Vibro-acoustic performance and design of annular cellular structures with graded auxetic mechanical metamaterials. Journal of Sound and Vibration. 2020;466:115038.
Silverberg JL, Evans AA, McLeod L, Hayward RC, Hull T, Santangelo CD, Cohen I. Using origami design principles to fold reprogrammable mechanical metamaterials. Science. 2014;345(6197):647–650.
Hwang DG, Bartlett MD. Tunable mechanical metamaterials through hybrid kirigami structures. Scientific Reports. 2018;8(1):3378.
Guo X, Ni X, Li J, Zhang H, Zhang F, Yu H, Zhang Y. Designing mechanical metamaterials with kirigami-inspired hierarchical constructions for giant positive and negative thermal expansion. Advanced Materials. 2021;33(3):2004919.
Al Hashimi NS, Soman SS, Govindharaj M, Vijayavenkataraman S. 3D printing of complex architected metamaterial structures by simple material extrusion for bone tissue engineering. Materials Today Communications. 2022;31:103382.
Yin S, Chen H, Li J, Yu TX, Xu J. Effects of architecture level on mechanical properties of hierarchical lattice materials. International Journal of Mechanical Sciences. 2019;157:282–292.
Bauer J, Kraus JA, Crook C, Rimoli JJ, Valdevit L. Tensegrity metamaterials: toward failure-resistant engineering systems through delocalized deformation. Advanced Materials. 2021;33(10):2005647.
Liu K, Zegard T, Pratapa PP, Paulino GH. Unraveling tensegrity tessellations for metamaterials with tunable stiffness and bandgaps. Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids. 2019;131:147–166.
Grossi B, Palza H, Zagal JC, Falcón C, During G. Metarpillar: soft robotic locomotion based on buckling-driven elastomeric metamaterials. Materials and Design. 2021;212:110285.
Silva B, Govan J, Zagal JC, Grossi B, Roldan A, Nunez AS, Palza H. A biomimetic smart kirigami soft metamaterial with multimodal remote locomotion mechanisms. Materials and Design. 2023;233:112262.
Güell-Grau P, Pi F, Villa R, Nogues J, Alvarez M, Sepulveda B. Ultrabroadband light absorbing Fe/polymer flexible metamaterial for soft opto-mechanical devices. Applied Materials Today. 2021;23:101052.
Mirzaali MJ, Janbaz S, Strano M, Vergani L, Zadpoor AA. Shape-matching soft mechanical metamaterials. Scientific Reports. 2018;8(1):965.
Dikici Y, Jiang H, Li B, Daltorio KA, Akkus O. Piece-by-piece shape-morphing: engineering compatible auxetic and non-auxetic lattices to improve soft robot performance in confined spaces. Advanced Engineering Materials. 2022;24(9):2101620.
Güven A, Van Der Zwaag S. 3D gradient auxetic soft mechanical metamaterials fabricated by additive manufacturing. Applied Physics Letters. 2021;118(14):143701.
Mohammadi A, Tan Y, Choong P, Oetomo D. Flexible mechanical metamaterials enabling soft tactile sensors with multiple sensitivities at multiple force sensing ranges. Scientific Reports. 2021;11(1):24125.
