Crashworthiness analysis and optimization of sinusoidal corrugation tube

Thin-walled structures are widely used as energy absorbing devices for their proven advantages on lightweight and crashworthiness. However, conventional thin-walled structures often exhibit unstable collapse modes and excessive initial peak crushing force (IPCF) followed by undesirable fluctuation in force-displacement curves under impact loading. This paper introduces a novel tubal configuration, namely sinusoidal corrugation tube (SCT), to control the collapse mode, and minimize the IPCF and fluctuations. Through validating the finite element (FE) models established, the effects of wavelength, amplitude, thickness and diameter of SCTs on collapse mode and energy absorption were investigated. The results showed that SCTs can make the deformation mode more controllable and predictable, which can be transformed from a mixed mode to a ring mode by simply changing the wavelength and amplitude. Compared with the traditional straight circular tube, the IPCF is reduced appreciably. Furthermore, SCTs have lower fluctuation in the force-displacement curves than traditional straight circular tubes. Finally, a multiobjective optimization is conducted to obtain the optimized SCT configuration for maximizing specific energy absorption (SEA), minimizing IPCF under the constraint of fluctuation criterion. The optimal SCTs are of even more superior crashworthiness and great potential as an energy absorber. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.