Mechanical design and energy absorption performances of novel dual scale hybrid plate-lattice mechanical metamaterials

Abstract In this paper, novel dual scale hybrid mechanical metamaterials consisting of simple cubic structure (SC), body-centered cubic structure (BCC), face-centered cubic structure (FCC) unit cells at different scale levels were designed and proposed for impact energy absorption, where one large type A unit cell and eight (2 × 2 × 2) small periodicspatially architected type B unit cells with half size of type A unit cell along X, Y and Z directions were integrated together for harvesting final hybrid metamaterials. Comparisons of specific energy absorption performances between novel hybrid mechanical metamaterials and constituent simple single type of unit cell lattice during compression process were performed through experimental investigation, where the failure and energy absorption process were recorded using the digital camera. Afterwards, finite element analysis (FEA) was performed and compared with experimental results for investigating the mechanical benefits of novel hybrid Plate-lattice mechanical metamaterials, it was found that the novel hybrid plate-lattice mechanical metamaterials can generate enhanced specific strength, specific stiffness and elevated energy absorption performances indicators, demonstrated promising industrial application potentials as energy-absorbing materials and structures for aerospace, vehicles, transport industrial sections.