Crashworthiness of multicellular tubes with tree-like fractal hierarchical structure under axial impact

Abstract

A new type of tree-like fractal hierarchical multicellular tubes (TFHMTs) is proposed, and the crashworthiness of the structure under axial impact is studied by using a verified Abaqus/Explicit finite element model. The research results show that the TFHMTs have better energy absorption capacity than single-cell tubes of the same thickness and mass under the same conditions. The wrinkle wavelength of the third-order TFHMTs is significantly shorter than that of the single-cell tubes, resulting in more folds. For the same mass, the proposed third-order TFHMTs has a lower peak crush force than a single-cell tube. Moreover, the specific energy absorption is up to 49.40% greater than that of the single-cell tube, and the crush force efficiency is up to 66.18%. Subsequent parameterization research on the layer ratio coefficient and wall thickness on TFHMTs was systematically conducted. Finally, a comparative analysis with typical hierarchical multicellular tubes was performed.