Nature Inspired meta-damped elastic plates

Abstract

Meta-damped structures are engineered materials or meta-materials designed to enhance vibration and impact energy absorption through their geometry, material distribution and internal damping characteristics while maintaining high stiffness. The architecture is engineered such that it manipulates the dynamic response of the system by redistributing vibrational energy and dissipating it across multiple scales. This behavior is achieved by combining a high-stiffness, low-damping material, such as steel, aluminum or a stiff photo-polymer resin such as verowhite and PLA plastics, with a low- stiffness high-damping material, such as viscoelastic rubber like silicone rubber, thermoplastic elastomers (TPE); thereby utilizing the complementary mechanical characteristics of the two materials. The stiff constituent provides the structural rigidity and load bearing capability, while the viscoelastic constituent promotes energy dissipation through its inherent damping characteristics. Inspired by naturally occurring architectures seen in birds like the woodpecker and analytical geometries like triply periodic meta structures, this work focuses on improving the impact absorption capability using gyroid based meta-damped structures. The objective is to find the structural configurations that maximize energy absorption and damping while maintaining lightweight and high stiffness.