Numerical evaluation of lightweight ultra high strength steel sandwich for energy absorption

Legislation regarding greenhouse gas emissions forces automotive manufacturers to bring forth new and innovative materials and structures for weight reduction of the body-in-white. The present work evaluates a lightweight ultra high strength steel sandwich concept, with perforated cores, for energy absorption applications. Hat-profile geometries, subjected to crushing, are studied numerically to evaluate specific energy absorption for the sandwich concept and solid hat-profiles of equivalent weight. Precise discretization of the perforated core requires large computational power. In the present work, this is addressed by homogenization, replacing the perforated core with a homogeneous material with equivalent mechanical properties. Input data for the equivalent material is obtained by analyzing a representative volume element, subjected to in-plane loading and out-of-plane bending/twisting using periodic boundary conditions. The homogenized sandwich reduces the number of finite elements and thereby computational time with approximately 95%, while maintaining accuracy with respect to force-displacement response and energy absorption. It is found that specific energy absorption is increased with 8-17%, when comparing solid and sandwich hat profiles of equivalent weight, and that a weight saving of at least 6% is possible for equivalent performance.