Comparative Study and Multi-Objective Crashworthiness Optimization Design of Foam and Honeycomb-Filled Novel Aluminum Thin-Walled Tubes

Due to their lightweight, porous and excellent energy absorption characteristics, foam and honeycomb materials have been widely used for filling energy absorbing devices. For further improving the energy absorption performance of the novel tube proposed in our recent work, the nonlinear dynamics software Abaqus was firstly used to establish and verify the simulation model of aluminum-filled tube. Then, the crashworthiness of honeycomb-filled tubes, foam-filled tubes and empty tube under axial load was systematically compared and analyzed. Furthermore, a comparative analysis of the mechanical behavior of filled tubes subjected to bending load was carried out based on the study of dynamic response curve, specific energy absorption and deformation mechanism, the difference in energy absorption performance between them was also revealed. Finally, the most promising filling structure with excellent crashworthiness under lateral load was optimized. The research results show that the novel thin-walled structures filled with foam or honeycomb both show better energy absorption characteristics, with an increase of at least 8.8% in total absorbed energy. At the same time, the mechanical properties of this kind of filled structure are closely related to the filling styles. Foam filling will greatly damage the weight efficiency of the novel thin-walled tube. However, honeycomb filling is beneficial to the improvement of SEA, which can be improved by up to 18.2%.