Journals Proceedings

Abstract

During a collision, the specific structures such as the frontal longitudinal and crash-box deforms plastically while absorbing substantial amount of kinetic energy. This energy absorbing characteristic has been designed in vehicles to reduce the severe injury of occupant. The design of such structures are very important because if these structures deform due to very high forces there is high risk to biomechanical damage of the vehicle occupants. Hence it is of upmost importance that the design of such structures maximizes the energy absorption while maintaining the peak force below an allowable threshold. The current work aims to design a new multi tube thin walled crashbox with these two crashworthiness performance measures being given much attention. The distance of the first plastic fold for the axial crushing was determined by simulation and this was used as a design input. This resulted in a near to ideal elastic-plastic behavior, increasing energy absorption and stable crushing compared to a single aluminium tube and steel equivalent.