In this paper, we propose a class of lattice structures with macroscopic Poisson's ratio arbitrarily close to the stability limit −1. We tested experimentally the effective Poisson's ratio of the microstructured medium; the uniaxial test was performed on a thermoplastic lattice produced with a threedimensional printing technology. A theoretical analysis of the effective properties was performed, and the expression of the macroscopic constitutive properties is given in full analytical form as a function of the constitutive properties of the elements of the lattice and on the geometry of the microstructure. The analysis was performed on three microgeometries leading to an isotropic behaviour for the cases of threeand sixfold symmetries and to a cubic behaviour for the case of fourfold symmetry.

The paper presents a novel analysis of Floquet-Bloch flexural waves in a periodic lattice-like structure consisting of flexural beam ligaments. A special feature of this structure is in the presence of the rotational inertia, which is commonly neglected in conventional models of the Euler-Bernoulli type. The dispersion properties of the Rayleigh beam structure with rotational inertia include degeneracies linked to Dirac cones on the dispersion diagrams as well as directional anisotropy and special refraction properties. Steering of Dirac cones is described for rectangular flexural structures with a rotational inertia. Numerical examples for a forced network of Rayleigh and Euler-Bernoulli beams illustrate directional localisation, negative refraction, localisation at an interface and neutrality for propagating plane waves across a structured interface for a frequency range corresponding to a Dirac cone.

We propose a class of auxetic three-dimensional lattice structures. The elastic microstructure can be designed in order to have omni-directional Poisson's ratio arbitrarily close to the stability limit −1. The cubic behavior of the periodic system has been fully characterized; the minumum and maximum Poisson's ratio and the associated principal directions are given as a function of the microstructural parameters.The initial microstructure is then modified into a body centered-cubic system that can achieve a Poisson's ratio lower than −1 and that can also behave as an isotropic threedimensional auxetic structure.

In-plane wave propagation in a periodic rectangular grid beam structure, which includes rotational inertia (so-called 'Rayleigh beams'), is analyzed both with a Floquet-Bloch exact formulation for free oscillations and with a numerical treatment (developed with PML absorbing boundary conditions) for forced vibrations (including Fourier representation and energy flux evaluations), induced by a concentrated force or moment. A complex interplay is observed between axial and flexural vibrations (not found in the common idealization of out-of-plane motion), giving rise to several forms of vibration localization: 'X-', 'cross-' and 'star-' shaped, and channel propagation. These localizations are triggered by several factors, including rotational inertia and slenderness of the beams and the type of forcing source (concentrated force or moment). Although the considered grid of beams introduces an orthotropy in the mechanical response, a surprising 'isotropization' of the vibration is observed at special frequencies. Moreover, rotational inertia is shown to 'sharpen' degeneracies related to Dirac cones (which become more pronounced when the aspect ratio of the grid is increased), while the slenderness can be tuned to achieve a perfectly flat band in the dispersion diagram. The obtained results can be exploited in the realization of metamaterials designed to control wave propagation. and the solution techniques are well-known, many interesting features still remain to be explored. This exploration is provided in the present article, where an exact Floquet-Bloch analysis is performed and complemented with a numerical treatment of the forced vibrations induced by the application of a concentrated force or moment, including presentation of the Fourier transform and energy flow (treated in [26] for free vibrations). It is shown that (i.) aspect ratio of the grid, (ii.) slenderness and (iii.) rotational inertia of the beams decide the emergence of several forms of highly-localized waveforms, namely, 'channel propagation', 'X-', 'cross-', 'star-' shaped vibration modes. Moreover, these mechanical properties of the grid can be designed to obtain flat bands and degeneracies related to Dirac cones in the dispersion diagram and directional anisotropy or, surprisingly, dynamic 'isotropization', for which waves propagate in a square lattice with the polar symmetry characterizing propagation in an isotropic medium.The presented results open the way to the design of vibrating devices with engineered properties, to achieve control of elastic wave propagation.2 In-plane Floquet-Bloch waves in a rectangular grid of beams An infinite lattice of Rayleigh beams is considered, periodically arranged in a rectangular geometry as shown in Fig. 1a, together with the unit cell, Fig. 1b.

A lattice (or 'grillage') of elastic Rayleigh rods (possessing a distributed mass density, together with rotational inertia) organized in a parallelepiped geometry can be axially loaded up to an arbitrary amount without distortion and then be subject to incremental time-harmonic dynamic motion. At certain threshold levels of axial load, the grillage manifests instabilities and displays non-trivial axial and flexural incremental vibrations. Including every possible structural geometry and for an arbitrary amount of axial stretching, Floquet-Bloch wave asymptotics is used to homogenize the in-plane mechanical response, so to obtain an equivalent prestressed elastic solid subject to incremental time-harmonic vibration, which includes, as a particular case, the incremental quasi-static response. The equivalent elastic solid is obtained from its acoustic tensor, directly derived from homogenization and shown to be independent of the rods' rotational inertia. Loss of strong ellipticity in the equivalent continuum coincides with macrobifurcation in the lattice, while micro-bifurcation remains undetected in the continuum and corresponds to a vibration of vanishing frequency of the lowest dispersion branch of the lattice, occurring at finite wavelength. Dynamic homogenization reveals the structure of the acoustic branches close to ellipticity loss and the analysis of forced vibrations (both in physical space and Fourier space) shows low-frequency wave localizations. A perturbative approach based on dynamic Green's function is applied to both the lattice and its equivalent continuum. This shows that only macro-instability corresponds to localization of incremental strain, while micro-instabilities occur in modes which spread throughout the whole lattice with an 'explosive' character. In particular, extremely localized mechanical responses are found both in the lattice and in the solid, with the advantage that the former can be easily realized, for instance via 3D printing. In this way, features such as shear band inclination, or the emergence of a single shear band, or competition between micro and macro instabilities become all designable features. The comparison between the mechanics of the lattice and its equivalent solid shows that the homogenization technique allows an almost perfect representation, except when micro-bifurcation is the first manifestation of instability. Therefore, the presented results pave the way for the design of architected cellular materials to be used in applications where extreme deformations are involved.