Crushing analysis and multiobjective crashworthiness optimization of foam-filled ellipse tubes under oblique impact loading

•We proposed a novel foam-filled ellipse (FET) tube.•The crashworthiness of the foam-filled ellipse tube under oblique impact loading was considered.•The design of experiments (DOE) method provided the means to select the sampling points.•Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm (NSGA-II) was used to optimize the FET tube.

In this paper, a novel foam-filled ellipse tube (FET) is proposed and compared with other hollow and foam-filled tubes with different cross-sections under multiple loading angles, which include square, circle and rectangle. First, finite element analyses of these tubes reveal that the FET tube has the best crashworthiness under multiple loading angles. Second, design of experiments (DOE) was used to analyze the parameters that radial rate f, thickness of wall t   and foam density ρfρf. Third, the Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm (NSGA-II) is used to optimize the FET tube, in which the optimal parameter variation is sought for maximizing specific energy absorption (SEA) and minimizing peak crush force (PCF) under multiple loading angles. The optimized FET tube exhibits better crashworthiness than the origin FET tube and other tubes with different cross-section, indicating that the FET tube can be a potential energy absorber especially under oblique impact loading.