Numerical Simulation of Automotive Crash-Box Subjected to Low Velocity Frontal Impact
Thin walled tubes, particularly those of square or circular cross-section, are the common types of automobile crash-box, which equipped at the front end of a car, is one of the most important automotive parts for crash energy absorption. In the present work, energy absorption characters of square and circular cross-section thin walled tubes at low-velocity frontal impact are investigated respectively by using finite element (FE) method. The numerical simulations were carried out using the software LS-DYNA. The tubes were modeled using shell element of designation Belytschko-Tsay, which is suitable for large strain analyses. The FE model of the tube was validated by comparing the theoretical calculation results, experimental results and FE model results. Results show that on average the difference of these results was within 10%. The good correlation of results obtained show that the numerical analyses are reliable.