Parametric investigation of the mechanical behavior of expanding-folding absorbers and their implementation in sandwich panels core. (April 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Chahardoli, S.; Nia, A. Alavi; Asadi, Mehrdad
• Is Part Of: Thin-walled structures. Volume 137(2019)
• Page Start: 53
• Page End: 66
• Publication Date: 2019-04
• Subjects: LS-DYNA -- Expanding-folding absorber -- Sandwich panel -- Bumper -- Energy absorber; Thin-walled structures -- Periodicals; 690.1
• DOI: 10.1016/j.tws.2019.01.003
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0263-8231

Abstract

Abstract: Thin-walled energy absorbers are one of the common structures that are used in vehicle body for increasing the crashworthiness and consequently decreasing injuries. Investigated new type of thin-walled aluminum matrix and a thin-walled steel punch energy absorber structure has been investigated in this paper. Energy is absorbed as the matrix expansion followed by simultaneous matrix and punch folding. Present study proposes a sandwich panel based on expanding-folding absorber units to evaluate their crush mechanism. Parametric study has been done using finite element code LS-DYNA while experimental tests have been implemented to validate the FE model. The panels have been tested under three axial quasi-static loading conditions including a rigid half-cylinder and a rigid plate. Parametric study considers the punch angle, matrix thickness and punch thickness. The optimum structure based on energy absorption has then been used as a structural member in the sandwich panel until a panel with high specific energy absorption be introduced. Also it have been seen that all the curves for the expansion section can be estimated using polynomial second order functions, with a high accuracy. Graphical abstract: fx1 Highlights: To absorb the kinetic impact energy effectively, the sandwich panels show structural need for high interconnection. Increasing the thickness of thin-walled mandrel shows a direct effect in increasing the maximum and average forces. Increasing the thickness of thin-walled matrix and increasing the angle of thin-walled mandrel increase the slope of the curve in expansion area. The output diagrams for the expansion section can be estimated using specific polynomial second order functions.