Tunable and recoverable energy absorption of foam-embedded architected cellular composite material at multiple strain rates

Abstract

Cellular multistable architected material has been widely studied for its promising energy absorption applications for personnel protection, protective packaging, and crash mitigation. Despite the tailorable properties enabled by their geometric features, a major issue in the actual application is their lower strengths in the elastic behavior of the multistable architected material. Herein, a novel design strategy of strain rate-dependent architected cellular composite material (FACCM) is proposed, aiming to achieve enhanced energy-absorbing properties with the proposed composite system than the single material constituent. Guided by numerical simulations and experimental tests, the compressive behaviour of FACCM at multiple strain rates and the effect of filled foam on it with specific geometric parameters are characterized. The quasi-static performances of the FACCM specimens were evaluated both at the cell level and planar array level. Our results indicate that the strength, stiffness, and snap-through behaviour of multistable architected material can be significantly improved by the filled foam at elevated loading rates regardless of quasi-static loading or impact tests. The current study offers a new strategy for developing novel packing, shock absorption, and impact protection systems.