Study and optimization of energy absorption characteristics of a new concave polygon tube

Abstract

To improve the energy absorption characteristics of the traditional convex polygonal tube and the existing concave polygonal tube, a new evolutionary scheme for the concave polygonal tube was proposed. The energy absorption characteristics of different concave tubes evolved from the common scheme (Scheme-I) and the new evolution scheme (Scheme-II) were studied through quasi-static compression experiments and numerical simulations. The results show that under the same mass, the concave polygonal tube evolved by Scheme-II has better energy absorption characteristics. The folded half-wavelength is smaller at the same compression distance, and compared with the traditional pentagon tube, the energy absorption (EA) of the pentagon concave of Scheme-II (N5E-CT) is improved by 218%, and the crushing force efficiency (CFE) is improved by 69%. Secondly, the mean crushing force of convex and concave tubes is derived and verified by the folded element theory. The mode of deformation of concave tubes under different structural sizes was investigated, and the size range within which the concave tube can remain stable was obtained. In addition, the evolution of the specific energy absorption (SEA) of the concave tubes was explored, and the SEA and the number of structural sides (N) show a trend of first increasing and then decreasing. Finally, the multi-objective optimization of the pentagon concave tube with excellent energy absorption characteristics was conducted, and the initial peak crushing force of the optimized structure was reduced by 19.92%.