MULTILEVEL OPTIMAL-DESIGN OF COMPOSITE STRUCTURES INCLUDING MATERIALSWITH NEGATIVE POISSONS RATIO

Multilevel iterative optimal design procedures, borrowed from the theo ry of structural optimization by means of homogenization, are used in this paper for the optimal material design of composite material struc tures. The method is quite general and includes materials with appropr iate microstructure, which may lead eventually to phenomenological, ov erall negative Poisson's ratios. The benefits of optimal structural de sign gained by this approach, together with the first attempts to expl ain the task-oriented microstructure of natural structures, are invest igated by means of numerical examples, and simulation of, among others , human bones.