used as the deformation element member in the pull through energy dissipaters of the present invention provided they possess the requisite inelastic elastic plastic or viscoelastic behavior and sufficiently high strength the primary requirement for any deformation element material is that the material exhibits inelastic plastic or viscoelastic behavior and that the tensile strength exceeds the anticipated pull through stress for a particular application virtually any plastically deformable material which meets these basic requirements may be employed as a deformation member for high impact force applications stainless or carbon steels are preferred due to their exceptionally high yield strengths and ductility in the unhardened state for these applications particularly where pull through strip dissipaters are employed hot rolled a36 1030 steel is a preferred deformation element material for achieving high energy dissipation efficiency viscoelastic materials are generally preferred since viscoelastic deformation elements may be repeatedly and successively deformed while recovering most of their original shape between deformation cycles due to repeated deformation of such materials as they travel through the pull through dissipater these materials are preferred for maximum energy absorption capacity per unit length while any viscoelastic material which has a tensile or compressive strength in excess of the deforming load and which recovers its original shape on release of a deforming load may be employed high density polyethylene has been shown to be particularly useful as a deformation element and may used in either pull through tube or strap dissipaters other plastic elastic or viscoelastic materials possessing similar load deformation and shape recovery behavior may also be employed for instance such materials may include but are not limited to thermoplastics such.