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Technical Paper

Cross-Section Design of the Crash Box to Maximize Energy Absorption

2011-10-06
2011-28-0110
Vehicle collisions frequently happen at a low-speed. Insurance companies and the RCAR (Research Council for Automobile Repairs) require reducing repair costs and improving occupant safety in a low-speed crash. In order to reduce repair costs in the RCAR test conditions, an energy absorbing device such as the crash box (C/Box) is usually installed. The C/Box is a thin-walled structure attached between the vehicle bumper structure and the side rail. The determination of the C/Box geometry is quite important to absorb the impact energy since the installation space of the C/Box is not very large. In this research, the determination process for the cross-sectional dimensions is proposed to improve the energy absorption efficiency of the C/Box. The proposed process has two steps. First, the cross-sectional dimensions are determined by two ways. One is a parameter study using an orthogonal array and the other is topology optimization.
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