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The conventional crash box with thin-walled column conceals some limitations on pedestrian protection and lightweight. The metallic NPR metamaterials designed in this study are based on re-entrant lattice structures. Re-entrant structures are known to be one main class of axenic structures that display negative Poisson’s ratio (NPR), which can be manufactured by 3D printing technology. This kind of metamaterial has good designability and can be used as the filling structure of the crash box to improve the crashworthiness of the car. This paper starts from the relations between geometric parameters of the metamaterial. Considering the deformation characteristics of the crash box, the structure were designed into some gradient types. The mechanical properties of different gradient structures under the same impact conditions were compared to find the proper gradient structures. Based on the studies, the gradient lattice structure is applied to the automobile crash box.

A comfortable thermal environment can alleviate fatigue, reduce irritability, and improve driving safety. However, it is rather a challenge to evaluate thermal comfort inside a vehicle due to multifarious geometric and environmental factors as well as human differences. This study conducted a series of field experiments both in summer and winter conditions, measuring the thermal environment parameters inside the compartment and the skin temperature of experimental personnel, and carrying out subjective thermal sensation and comfort questionnaires. The experimental results showed that head and trunk are the most relevant parts of all human body parts to the overall thermal sensation/comfort. For overall thermal sensation, the value of regression R2 referring to head/trunk is 0.691/0.721, while those corresponding to overall thermal comfort is 0.802/0.773.