A study on maximization of dynamic crushing energy absorption of cylindrical shell structures

Abstract

The crushing behavior of cylindrical shells subjected to an axial impact force is studied by FEM, and a comparison between numerical results and theoretical predictions as well as a qualitative comparison between numerical estimates and experimental results are made and discussed. Moreover, a crashworthiness maximization technique for shell structures is developed and applied to the axial crushing problem of cylindrical shell. In the program system presented in this study, an explicit finite element code, dyna3d is adopted for simulating complicate crushing behavior of shell structures. The response surface approximation technique is applied to construct an approximated design sub-problem in the preassigned design space by using the technique of design-of-experiment. The approximated sub-problem is solved by the usual mathematical programming technique. These optimization processes is repeated until the given convergence conditions will be satisfied.