Application of double arrowhead auxetic honeycomb structure in displacement measurement

It is essential to measure the amount of displacement in mechanical systems and architectural structures. Researchers have developed displacement sensors using various materials and fabrication methods. However, the components of displacement sensors are in contact with each other, which would cause the interference and noise transmission between the sensing device and conversion element, and also bring much inconvenience to the design and preparation of the sensor. In this study, a non-contact displacement measurement method based on the auxetic structure was developed. The scheme of this method consists of a light source, an auxetic structure and a solar cell. These three parts are not in contact with each other. By this method, the change in transmittance of the auxetic structure due to elastic deformation is transformed into a change in the output current of the solar cell. The proposed method has potential applicability for measuring and monitoring structural parts. The effectiveness of this method is investigated by geometrical analysis and experiments. The results show that the input and output of the proposed methods have good sensitivity. This study provides a new structural view for the displacement sensor and puts forward the future research.