3D Cubic Buckling Mechanical Metamaterials

Current concepts for shock absorbers are based on destructive deformation or viscoelasticity. In the latter case the absorbers are reusable but the amount of absorbed energy heavily depends on the loading speed. Frenzel et al. have introduced a concept using buckling mechanical instabilities to realize a reusable shock absorber working independently of the loading conditions [1]. They presented proof-of-principle structures with a uniaxial hexagonal lattice, being able to absorb shocks along this axis.