An Experimental Validation of Numerical Model for Top-Hat Tubular Structure Subjected to Axial Crush

Vehicle crashworthiness is an important aspect to consider when designing a vehicle to ensure the safety of the occupants. Besides this, vehicles are also designed to reduce weight for better fuel economics. One possible approach to reducing weight without compromising vehicle safety is by looking at new designs and usage of composite materials, along with the usage of computational models to reduce time and cost. Hence, this paper displays the experimental results of a carbon fiber reinforced closed top-hat section subjected to both quasi-static and dynamic crushing loading. The results were used to validate the computational model developed in the study. The specimens were made of carbon composite prepregs MTM-44 sheets stacked at the alternative orientation of ±45° and 0°/90°, where 0° direction coincides with the axis of the member. The samples were prepared by using a mold and carbon prepregs under vacuum bagging followed by curing in an autoclave. Trigger initiation was applied to ensure the specimens demonstrated a stable crushing mode of failure during the test. Experimental investigations were carried out under the ambient conditions with different loading conditions, and different kinetic energy ranges (2, 3 and 6 kJ). Experimental data was used to validate the finite element analysis (FEA). The maximum errors obtained between experimental and FEA for mean load, mean energy absorption, and crushing displacement were 13%, 13% and 7%, respectively. The numerically obtained results were in strong agreement with the experimental data and showed that they were able to predict the failure of the specimens. The work also showed the novelty of using such structures for energy absorption applications.

Numerical simulation of the crush behavior of tapered tubes

Traffic accidents are increasing as a result of an increasing number of vehicles and population growth in recent years. Active and passive safety systems are used in the vehicles we use today to reduce traffic accidents and prevent casualties. One of the passive security systems is the crush box (crashworthiness). It absorbs the energy generated during a crash by plastic deformation. In this study, tube height, diameter and thickness parameters were kept constant and degrees of conicity were varied 0°(flat tube),3°,7°,10°,12° and 15° The effects of conical crush boxes on axial crush behavior and their energy absorption ability, were investigated by Ls-Dyna explicit dynamic software.

Study on Crush Tube Geometric Cross sections and Topology for Axial Crashworthiness

Crush tubes are used as crash impact energy absorbing structure (EAS) and are located in the frontal compartment of road vehicles. Ideal crashworthiness of an EAS mandates that the equivalent decelerations due to impact forces should to be ≤ 20g; and crush force and stroke efficiencies should tend to unity. It is understood from the literature that no single geometric cross-section shape exhibits a near-ideal crashworthiness; and most EAS members exhibit a high initial peak crush force which is detrimental to the occupant safety, and moderate stroke and crush force efficiencies leading to a compromise in the total energy absorbed. In this paper, finite element analysis (FEA) methodology is formulated and experimentally validated for axial crush of a crush tube of SS304 material with circular cross section. Subsequently, plastic deformation phenomenon and folding patterns in relation to crush force behaviour of crush tubes with various basic cross-sections of polygonal geometric shapes from triangle to octagon and circle are extensively studied through FEA. Further, two new geometric cross-section profiles with combination of basic shapes are proposed to combine the merits of different basic shapes. The crashworthiness of all basic cross-sections including the two proposed cross-section profiles is assessed based on standard parameters. The proposed new geometries may form a basis for the development of new EAS configurations for enhanced crashworthiness.