Evaluation of various multi-cell design concepts for crashworthiness design of thin-walled aluminum tubes

Abstract

In this paper, we evaluate various multi-cell design concepts to optimize the crash performances of thin-walled aluminum tubes. The crash performances of the tubes are evaluated by means of two metrics: the crush force efficiency (CFE) and the specific energy absorption (SEA). The CFE and SEA of the tubes are predicted through the use of the finite element analysis software LS-DYNA. Experiments are also conducted to validate the finite element models. Thirty different multi-cell design concepts are evaluated in terms of CFE and SEA, and the best design concept is selected for further evaluation. Next, we perform surrogate-based optimization of the selected design concept, upon which we find that optimum design for maximum CFE which utilizes smaller wall thickness values (except the wall thickness of the inner tube) and larger tube diameters than those of the corresponding ones for the optimum design for maximum SEA. Additionally, the optimized designs exhibit remarkable CFE and SEA performances. © 2019