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The crushing behavior of axially compressed short thin-walled open-section columns was studied. Results of model tests on 0.1 mm thick aluminum foil specimens have shown that the panels collapsing in the symmetric and asymmetric deformation mode provide respectively, upper and lower bound for the energy absorbed in any other buckling mode. In both cases, the crush response of the panel was predicted theoretically with a reasonable accuracy. Attempts were made to introduce beneficial geometric imperfections of a specified magnitude so that the structure will be forced to collapse in the most energy efficient deformation mode.

Ground impact caused by road debris can result in very severe fire accident of Electric Vehicles (EV). In order to study the ground impact accidents, a Finite Element model of the battery pack structure is carefully set up according to the practical designs of EVs. Based on this model, the sequence of the deformation process is studied, and the contribution of each component is clarified. Subsequently, four designs, including three enhanced shield plates and one enhanced housing box, are investigated. Results show that the BRAS (Blast Resistant Adaptive Sandwich) shield plate is the most effective structure to decrease the deformation of the battery cells. Compared with the baseline case, which adopts a 6.35-mm-thick aluminum sheet as the shield plate, the BRAS can reduce the shortening of cells by more than 50%. Another type of sandwich structure, the NavTruss, can also improve the safety of battery pack, but not as effectively as the BRAS.