A candidate of mechanical energy mitigation system: Dynamic and quasi-static behaviors and mechanisms of zeolite β/water system

•Zeolite β/water system is experimentally explored as a protection system.•Zeolite β/water system has a high energy absorption density.•Zeolite β/water system proves to be a good impact attenuation.•Performance of the system can be finely tuned by multiple parameters.

Zeolite β/water system is experimentally explored under both quasi-static and dynamic conditions to give insights into its potential as a protection system. Its energy absorption density, E under quasi-static condition is investigated, including its dependence on three influential parameters: the pretreatment temperature of zeolite β, T (room temperature to 1100 °C), concentration of sodium chloride, CNaCl (0–6 mol kgH2O-1, i.e., moles of salt/kg of water), and mass ratio of zeolite β to water, rM (0–1:1). Results show that higher content of zeolite β with a treatment lower than 1000 °C is preferable while two competing effects co-exist for the influence of CNaCl. Furthermore, dynamic impact tests based on drop weight device are conducted to demonstrate the cushioning effect of zeolite β/water system under low-speed impact. It shows that the peak force Fmax can be decreased by 42.82% and reaction duration time t can be extended by 79.16%. To conclude, results prove that zeolite β/water system can serve as impact mitigation system for protections with decent performance and shed lights on the future engineering for the system.

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