High-performance impact absorbing materials—the concept, design tools and applications

Abstract

The concept of design of adaptive materials composed of elements with controllable yield stresses is presented and the corresponding, gradient-based numerical design tools are described. Numerical simulation of the adaptation effect to various impact scenarios is demonstrated. The crucial point to get an additional value of energy dissipation (due to synergy of repetitive use of dissipaters in honeycomb-like cellular microstructure) is to pre-design an optimal distribution of yield stress level in all controllable elements, triggering a desired sequence of local collapses. High effectiveness of active impact energy absorption by the yield stress adjustment demonstrates potential application of the concept e.g. in shock-absorbing systems.