Impact energy absorption characteristics of aluminum cellular solid with mimetic woody structure

Abstract

In order to ensure the safety of passengers in the event of an accident, side member and crash box are mounted on automobiles. Cylindrical tubes, rectangular pipes and hat-shaped members have been examined as structural members that subjected to an axial compressive load. However, these structures have problems that the initial peak load is very high and the load rapidly decreases due to buckling during crushing. To solve the problems, we proposed a cellular solid with mimetic woody structure as a new structural member. Some woods have no initial sharp peak load and have a plateau region which the load is constant in the relationship between the load and the displacement, when the impulsive load are applied to them. We considered that those features were suitable for structural members like a side member or a crash box. The basic cell was a square block with a side length of 10 millimeters and it had a hole in the center. The cellular solid was constituted by combining some basic cells. Therefore, a homogeneous cellular solid was fabricated by making small holes in the aluminum cube. From results obtained from the impact crushing test and simulation by the FEM software LS-DYNA®, it was demonstrated that the proposed cellular solid had crushing characteristics similar to the wood, and the energy absorption characteristics were influenced by the shape and arrangement of the cells. As a result, it was shown that the results of experiment and analysis substantially corresponded. Since the load during crushing depended on the shape and arrangement of the cells, the possibility of controlling the energy absorption characteristics was shown.

Keywords

• cellular solid
• impact energy
• energy absorption
• finite element analysis
• impact test
• dynamic plasticity
• wood structure