Crashworthiness design for functionally graded foam-filled thin-walled structures

Foam-filled thin-wall structures have exhibited significant advantages in light weight and high energy absorption and been widely applied in automotive, aerospace, transportation and defence industries. Unlike existing uniform foam materials, this paper introduces functionally graded foam (FGF) fillers to fill thin-walled structures, aiming to improve crashworthiness. In this novel structure, the foam density varies throughout the depth in a certain gradient. Numerical simulations showed that gradient exponential parameter m that controls the variation of foam density has significant effect on system crashworthiness. In this study, the single and multiobjective particle swarm optimization methods are used to seek for optimal gradient, where response surface models are established to formulate specific energy absorption and peak crushing force. The results yielded from the optimizations indicate that the FGF material is superior to its uniform counterparts in overall crashworthiness. The data has considerable implication in design of FGF materials for optimizing structural crashworthiness. (C) 2009 Published by Elsevier B.V.