The ideal shock absorber combines high stiffness with high energy absorption whilst retaining structural integrity after impact and is scalable for industrial production. So far no structure meets all of these criteria. Here, we introduce a special occurrence of plastic buckling as a design concept for mechanical metamaterials that combine all the elements required of an ideal shock absorber. By striking a balance between plastic deformation and buckling, which we term yield buckling, these metamaterials exhibit sequential, maximally dissipative collapse combined with high strength and the preservation of structural integrity. Unlike existing structures, this design paradigm is applicable to all elastoplastic materials at any length scale and hence will lead to a new generation of shock absorbers with enhanced safety and sustainabilty in a myriad of high-tech applications.

翻译：理想减震器兼具高刚度与高能量吸收能力，同时在冲击后保持结构完整性，并可扩展用于工业生产。迄今为止，尚无结构能满足所有这些标准。在此，我们提出一种特殊形式的塑性屈曲现象，作为机械超材料的设计理念，该材料融合了理想减震器所需的所有要素。通过平衡塑性变形与屈曲（我们称之为屈曲屈服），这些超材料展现出序贯性、最大化耗散的坍塌特性，同时兼具高强度与结构完整性保持能力。与现有结构不同，该设计范式适用于任意尺度的所有弹塑性材料，因此将在众多高科技应用中催生兼具更高安全性与可持续性的新一代减震器。