The crashworthiness design of multi-cell structures using the tessellations of self-similar inspired tubes

Abstract

Multi-cell tubes can be flexibly designed to exhibit excellent energy absorption capacity and lightweight property via the topological configuration design of their cross-section characteristics such as hierarchy and gradients. In this paper, we focus on the design of multi-cell structure, which combined with topological configuration design and space-filling (tessellation) design strategy. The multi-cell structure was firstly constructed with the tessellation of single tubes, followed by filling with the self-similar inspired tubes based on different space-filling strategies. The crashworthiness of designed multi-cell structures was numerically and experimentally investigated. The influence of the number and order of substructures, the combination of different substructures and the synergistic effect between substructures were analyzed. A refined theoretical model of the constituent elements was established to predict the crashworthiness of these structures, which consists of different combinations of 0-order and first-order self-similar inspired structures. The results demonstrate that the specific energy absorption of the multi-cell tubes filled with different order of same substructure was increased with the number of the substructures. The maximum specific energy absorption of multi-cell tubes with four higher-order substructures is 1.39 times higher than multi-cell tubes with two higher-order substructures. It is found that the energy absorption of multi-cell structures can be further enhanced by utilizing the synergistic effect between different type of substructures. The current study provides a reference for the design of space-filling multi-cell tubes and cellular structures with adjustable crashworthiness.