Frontal Crash Worthiness Performance of Bitubular Corrugated Conical Structures under both axial and oblique loads at low velocity

Vehicle collisions are a major concern in the modern automotive industry. To ensure the passenger safety, major focus have been given on energy absorption pattern during collision, which lead to the implementation of new design of the crash box for low speed collision. The main aim of this research is optimization of the conical shaped bitubular structure based on its mean diameter, graded thickness and semi vertical angle. Further to increase energy absorption characteristics of the conical crash box, corrugations are integrated on both tubes and optimized based on different parameters such as number of corrugations, pattern of corrugation relative to both tubes and depth of corrugation. A finite element model is created to perform parametric study on corrugated conical bitubular structure based on axial and oblique load conditions at low velocity. Optimization to maximize total absorbed energy and minimize peak impact load on the crash box within constraints is conducted. The result showed that optimal design of proposed crash box performs effectively as energy absorbing structure and can be used in the future vehicle body.