A novel compression torsion coupling metamaterial with repeatable energy dissipation characteristics

Abstract Energy dissipation metamaterials based on frictional energy dissipation have attracted much attention due to their reusable properties. The innovation of this paper is to propose a compression torsion coupling (CTC) metamaterial that can dissipate energy in the elastic stage by introducing the frictional energy dissipation mechanism into the CTC metamaterial. The proposed CTC structure was composed of rotating spring structures with Z-shaped ribs. 3D printing technology was used to make specimens for loading–unloading experiments. The mechanical properties were studied by finite element simulation and experiments. The influences of geometric parameters such as the helicity of the cylinder, the thickness of the cylinder and the thickness of the ribs on mechanical properties were studied. The results indicated that the proposed structure retains the CTC characteristic and can dissipate energy within the elastic range. Repeated loading–unloading experiments demonstrated that the proposed structure has good recoverability. The proposed CTC energy dissipation metamaterial was expected to be used in novel reusable buffer protection devices such as the landing gear of recyclable rockets.