| Negative stiffness, or a reversal in the usual assumed direction between causal forces and ensuing deformations, has been proposed as a pathway to materials which exceed theoretical performance bounds. Negative stiffness, as a concept, represents a relaxation of tacitly assumed material behavior, but it violates no natural laws. Negative stiffness, normally unstable without constraint, is permissible for stability under special conditions, for example a rigid boundary constraint so long as the material satisfies strong ellipticity in the parlance of elasticity. Hence, negative stiffness is not observed in materials or structures which are not constrained. If negative stiffness is allowed for inclusions of material, which are surrounded by a stabilizing positive stiffness matrix, composite theory predicts large increases in the mechanical damping and composite stiffness.; The work herein explores several material systems which possess negative stiffness, and seeks to characterize the composite mechanical properties of these systems. Two metal matrix composite systems, namely Sn-VO2 and Sn-BaTIO3, were investigated. Here, negative stiffness arises from the ferroelastic phase transformations in the ceramic inclusions; stability is imparted by the tin matrix. Polycrystalline In-Tl and BaTIO 3 were also studied. Here, the entire material volume is phase transforming. Constraint is imparted on a small volume fraction of crystallites by the surrounding material.; Various manifestations of negative stiffness were observed. Thermally broad damping peaks which depended upon thermal cycling were observed in the Sn-VO2 composites. Furthermore, mechanical instabilities were seen in composites intentionally designed to be unstable. Negative stiffness was indicated in the In-Tl alloy by magnification of damping peaks over those observed in single crystals, increases in damping peaks with increased cooling rates, occurrence of damping peaks before the appearance of martensite and undulations in the shear modulus with extreme cooling rates. Some Sn-BaTIO 3 composites were observed to display temporary peaks in Young's Modulus which exceeded that of diamond. |
