Quasi-static impact of origami crash boxes with various profiles: Fid-Bau Portal

Quasi-static impact of origami crash boxes with various profiles

Yuan, Lin / Shi, Haoyuan / Ma, Jiayao / You, Zhong

Abstract The crash box is a structural component which is widely used in transport vehicles. It is designed to collapse and absorb kinetic energy in a low-speed collision. In this paper, we present a family of new origami crash boxes with rectangular, polygonal cross sections, and tapered shapes, through pre-folding the surface of thin-walled tubes according to a set of developable origami patterns. We have demonstrated through quasi-static impact experiments and numerical simulation that these origami crash boxes collapse into a diamond-shaped mode with a doubled number of traveling plastic hinge lines. The proposed optimal design leads to a maximum increase of 107.1% in terms of the energy absorption per unit mass and a maximum reduction of 68.3% of the initial peak force when compared with the conventional crash box. The substantial gain in overall energy absorption and the decrease in peak reaction force makes the proposed origami patterns attractive for energy absorption applications.

Highlights • A family of origami patterns used to design thin-walled tubes with various profiles. • A diamond-shaped collapse mode triggered in the new origami crash boxes. • Reduced peak force and improved energy absorption achieved simultaneously.