Tailored Buckling Microlattices as Reusable Light-Weight Shock Absorbers

Tobias Frenzel; Claudio Findeisen; Muamer Kadic; Peter Gumbsch; Martin Wegener

doi:10.1002/adma.201600610

Tailored Buckling Microlattices as Reusable Light-Weight Shock Absorbers

Adv Mater. 2016 Jul;28(28):5865-70. doi: 10.1002/adma.201600610. Epub 2016 May 9.

Authors

Tobias Frenzel¹, Claudio Findeisen^{2

3}, Muamer Kadic¹, Peter Gumbsch^{2

3}, Martin Wegener^{1

4}

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Applied Physics, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), 76128, Karlsruhe, Germany.
² Institute for Applied Materials, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), 76128, Karlsruhe, Germany.
³ Fraunhofer Institute for Mechanics of Materials IWM, 79108, Freiburg, Germany.
⁴ Institute of Nanotechnology, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), 76128, Karlsruhe, Germany.

PMID: 27159205
DOI: 10.1002/adma.201600610

Abstract

Structures and materials absorbing mechanical (shock) energy commonly exploit either viscoelasticity or destructive modifications. Based on a class of uniaxial light-weight geometrically nonlinear mechanical microlattices and using buckling of inner elements, either a sequence of snap-ins followed by irreversible hysteretic - yet repeatable - self-recovery or multistability is achieved, enabling programmable behavior. Proof-of-principle experiments on three-dimensional polymer microstructures are presented.

Keywords: buckling; instabilities; metamaterials; microlattices; shock absorbers.