Study on the crashworthiness of star-shaped multicellular tubes
Fumo Yang, Xiaolin Deng
Abstract
Based on the conventional star-shaped tube, a star-shaped multicellular tube was proposed and designed; finite element modeling was carried out using Abaqus/Explicit software, and the accuracy of the finite element model was verified under axial impact, the crashworthiness study shows that the star-shaped multicellular tube is significantly improved compared to the conventional star-shaped tube for the same wall thickness and same mass conditions. Namely, for the same wall thickness conditions, the energy absorption of the star-shaped quadrangular multicellular tube (SSMT-4-140°) is 1.77 times that of the star-shaped quadrangular tube (SST-4-140°), and the crush force efficiency is 1.24 times that of SST-4-140°; at the same mass, the energy absorption of SSMT-4-140° is 1.17 times that of SST-4-140°, and the crush force efficiency is 1.14 times that of SST-4-140°. Subsequently, the parametric study of the number of corners N, angle between two adjacent corners θ°, and wall thickness on the star-shaped multicellular tube was systematically carried out. The results of this paper can provide valuable information toward the innovative design of multicell tube structures.