Crushing behavior of new designed multi-cell members subjected to axial and oblique quasi-static loads

Abstract

A new design of multi-cell devices was proposed in this paper, and evaluated in terms of crashworthiness capability under quasi-static axial and oblique (9°, 18° and 27°) loading. The structures studied in the present paper were single and multi-cell members made up of two straight columns with the same shape of cross-section connected together by several ribs. They included several sectional configurations such as triangle, square, hexagon and circle with different scales (i.e. 0, 0.25, 0.5, 0.75 and 1). Finite element code LS-DYNA was used to simulate the crashworthiness behavior of the proposed members under quasi-static loads. Several crashworthiness indicators including SEA, Fmax and CFE were obtained at different crushing angles for all the columns, and a powerful decision making method known as COPRAS was then implemented to choose the best energy absorber with the criteria of having higher specific energy absorption and lower initial peak force. From the COPRAS calculations, the multi-cell members with inner tube and scale number of 0.5 were selected as the better energy absorbers, and the column with circular cross-section was also found to be the best energy absorbing device.