Crash behavior of thin-Walled box beams with complex sinusoidal relief patterns

This paper proposes a new automotive box-beam crash absorber design with sinusoidal patterns embedded on the beam surfaces. Six different types of surface patterns were initially proposed and a total of 43 samples were simulated using the commercial pre-processor HyperCrash™ and the commercial explicit FEM solver RADIOSS™. The aim of the study is to improve energy absorption properties of the beams by controlling the wavelength of progressive buckle formations and obtaining denser collapse formations. It was found that the relief patterns could be used effectively to change the buckling modes and reduce the buckle wavelength. A maximum of 42 percent increase in the amount of total energy absorbed and an increase in the energy efficiency factor from 1.08 to 1.54 was observed moving from the reference model to the best design so far. This research may possibly pave new avenues in crash absorber design.

► In this work, we propose embedding complex sinusoidal patterns in box beams used as crash absorbers.
► We examined several different types of pattern combinations in order to change the buckling mode.
► The frequency types which displayed promising results were then optimized systematically.
► Some of the optimized patterns were able to absorb up to 40 percent more energy than the standard reference model.