Design and optimization of equal gradient thin-walled tube: Bionic application of antler osteon

Abstract

To improve the crashworthiness and energy absorption of thin-walled tube structures, a bionic thin-walled tube was designed based on the structural characteristics of antler osteon and the principle of structural bionics and had the same inner and outer diameters and the same gradient thickness as antler osteon. A nonlinear finite element method is used to simulate the crashworthiness of a thin-walled tube with equal gradient thickness variation (EGTTS) under axial and oblique loads. The crashworthiness of EGTTS-7 (Egtts with 7 layers) was evaluated using the complex proportional assessment(COPRAS). A multi-objective particle swarm optimization (MOPSO) algorithm was used to optimize the EGTTS-7 and the Pareto boundary was used to obtain the optimal structure parameters of the EGTTS-7 by using the loading angles of 0°, 10°, 20°, and 30°. It is found that the crashworthiness of the EGTTS is best when the axial load weight factor of the case is large. Compared with EGTTS and circular tubes(CT), F max can be reduced by up to 50.1% and EA can be increased by up to 22.7%.

Bio-inspired Thin-Walled Energy Absorber Adapted from the Xylem Structure for Enhanced Vehicle Safety

“…To trade-off the maximization of the 𝑆𝐸𝐴 and 𝐶𝐹𝐸, a composite objective function is formulated, as shown in Eq. (2).…”

“…Thin-walled circular tubes are commonly employed for crash absorption purposes. Ha et al [1] were inspired by a coconut tree configuration and proposed a thin-walled circular tube design with conical corrugations, whereas Huo et al [2] were inspired by antler osteon in their crash tube design. Moreover, drawing inspiration from the deep-sea glass sponge's skeleton, Ha et al [3] presented a sandwich construction with a cylindrical shape.…”