Architected Energy Dissipation Structures with Tunable Rigid-flexible Behaviors

The DoW requires lightweight protection materials for a variety of applications, including personal protection, vehicle safety, and shielding sensitive electronics. Most protection structures are either a) rigid materials – e.g. metals, ceramics, composites - designed to carry significant mechanical loads and/or blunt kinetic threats, or b) flexible materials – e.g. elastomers, foam structures, structures based on polymeric fibers – intended to compress and/or stretch, are conformable, and effec...