Shock-Absorbing Hyper-Elastic Metamaterials: Recent Findings from Multiscale Modelling
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This work develops computational tools for the design of shock-absorbing dissipative metamaterials, focusing on rapid shape recovery and high-frequency impact resilience. While hyper-elastic materials are typically non-dissipative, this study demonstrates that macroscopic dissipation can be achieved through the emergence of a non-convex free energy, even when using polyconvex hyper-elastic constituents at the lower scale. The microscale architecture is defined by a buckling lattice of periodic cells. The slender members within this lattice are modelled using large-strain Timoshenko-like beam kinematics combined with a least-energy bifurcation criterion. A multiscale framework is established to couple the 2D/3D macroscopic solid domain with the beam-based microstructure using an Ersatz material formulation. This approach effectively handles unmatched dimensions between scales while precluding instabilities through the use of dimension-perturbed buckling layers within the Representative Volume Element (RVE).
