Enhancing the Energy Absorption Characteristics of Multi-Cell Square Tubes under Lateral Impact

Abstract

Thin-walled tubular components have been broadly utilized in energy absorption applications, to improve the crashworthiness of the structure and to mitigate the impact kinetic energy through progressive plastic buckling. The extensive usage of cylindrical tubes as impact energy attenuators is owing to their superior crashworthiness behaviour, easy fabrication, less cost, and light-weight efficacy. The current paper examines the lateral impact behaviour of thin-walled aluminum multi-cell square tubes of different configurations using numerical simulations. These non-linear impact simulations were performed on multi-cell square tubes using finite element ABAQUS/CAE explicit code. From the overall results obtained, the crashworthiness performance of multi-cell square tubes of various configurations were compared. Moreover, multi-cell square tube of first type were recognized as most prominent for better energy absorption. This type of tubes was found to be effective one to improve the lateral crashworthiness performance