Mechanical shock is a common occurrence in various settings, there are two different scenarios for shock protection: catastrophic protection (e.g. car collisions and falls) and routine protection (e.g. shoe soles and shock absorbers for car seats). The former protects against one-time events, the latter against periodic shocks and loads. Common shock absorbers based on plasticity and fracturing materials are suitable for the former, while our focus is on the latter, where elastic structures are useful. Improved elastic materials protecting against shock can be used in applications such as automotive suspension, furniture like sofas and mattresses, landing gear systems, etc. Materials offering optimal protection against shock have a highly non-linear elastic response: their reaction force needs to be as close as possible to constant with respect to deformation. In this paper, we use shape optimization and topology search to design 2D families of microstructures approximating the ideal behavior across a range of deformations, leading to superior shock protection. We present an algorithmic pipeline for the optimal design of such families combining differentiable nonlinear homogenization with self-contact and an optimization algorithm. These advanced 2D designs can be extruded and fabricated with existing 3D printing technologies. We validate their effectiveness through experimental testing.

翻译：机械冲击在各种场景中普遍存在，抗冲击防护包含两种不同情形：灾难性防护（如汽车碰撞与跌落）和常规性防护（如鞋底与汽车座椅减震器）。前者针对一次性事件提供保护，后者则应对周期性冲击与载荷。基于塑性材料和断裂材料的传统减震器适用于前者，而我们的研究聚焦于后者，其中弹性结构具有实用价值。改进型抗冲击弹性材料可应用于汽车悬架、沙发床垫等家具、起落架系统等领域。具备最优抗冲击性能的材料需呈现高度非线性的弹性响应：其反作用力需尽可能随形变保持恒定。本文采用形状优化与拓扑搜索方法，设计出在形变范围内逼近理想性能的二维微结构族，从而实现卓越的抗冲击防护。我们提出了一种算法流程，通过结合含自接触的非线性均匀化方法与优化算法，实现此类微结构族的最优设计。这些先进的二维构型可通过现有3D打印技术进行挤压成型与制造，并通过实验测试验证其有效性。