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Crashworthiness optimization of new thin-walled cellular configurations

Shujuan Hou (State Key Laboratory of Advanced Design and Manufacturing for Vehicle Body, Hunan University, Changsha, China and College of Mechanical and Vehicle Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha, China)
Zhidan Zhang (State Key Laboratory of Advanced Design and Manufacturing for Vehicle Body, Hunan University, Changsha, China and College of Mechanical and Vehicle Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha, China)
Xujing Yang (State Key Laboratory of Advanced Design and Manufacturing for Vehicle Body, Hunan University, Changsha, China and College of Mechanical and Vehicle Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha, China)
Hanfeng Yin (State Key Laboratory of Advanced Design and Manufacturing for Vehicle Body, Hunan University, Changsha, China and College of Mechanical and Vehicle Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha, China)
Qing Li (School of Aerospace, Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering, The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia)

Engineering Computations

ISSN: 0264-4401

Article publication date: 1 July 2014

406

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to optimize a new thin-walled cellular configurations with crashworthiness criteria, so as to improve the crashworthiness of components of a vehicle body.

Design/methodology/approach

ANSYS Parametric Design Language is used to create the parameterized models so that the design variables can be changed conveniently. Moreover, the surrogate technique, namely response surface method, is adopted for fitting objective and constraint functions. The factorial design and D-optimal criterion are employed to screen active parameters for constructing the response functions of the specific energy absorption and the peak crushing force. Finally, sequential quadratic programming-NLPQL is utilized to solve the design optimization problem of the new cellular configurations filled with multi-cell circular tubes under the axial crushing loading.

Findings

Two kinds of distribution modes of the cellular configurations are first investigated, which are in an orthogonal way and in a diamond fashion. After comparing the optimized configurations of the rectangular distribution with the annular distribution of the multi-cell fillers, it is found that the orthogonal way seems better in the aspects of crashworthiness than the diamond fashion.

Originality/value

The two new thin-walled cellular configuration are studied and optimized with the crashworthiness criteria. Study on the new cellular configurations is very valuable for improving the crashworthiness of components of a vehicle body. Meanwhile, the factorial design and the factor screening are adopted in the process of the crashworthiness optimization of the new thin-walled cellular configurations.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

The financial supports from Key Project of National Natural Science Foundation of China (11232004), National Natural Science Foundation of China (10902036) and New Century Excellent Talents Program in University (NCET-12-0168) are gratefully acknowledged. Moreover, the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, Hunan University is also gratefully acknowledged.

Citation

Hou, S., Zhang, Z., Yang, X., Yin, H. and Li, Q. (2014), "Crashworthiness optimization of new thin-walled cellular configurations", Engineering Computations, Vol. 31 No. 5, pp. 879-897. https://doi.org/10.1108/EC-11-2012-0300

Publisher

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Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2014, Emerald Group Publishing Limited

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