This paper presents a novel point of view for the performance investigation and optimization of energy absorber devices, which is numerically introduced using the finite element method employing corrugated tubes. The numerical results show that structural or material softening leads to an optimal configuration at which the corrugated or circular tube achieves its peak performance. The performance and optimization parameters used in this study are absorbed crash energy and specific energy absorption. The force-displacement (f-d) diagram of the energy absorbers is divided into three parts for numerical investigation. The optimum point of each corrugated tube is observed when the values of energy absorption (EA) at different stages of the stroke (i.e., in the first, middle, and last portions of deformation) are almost equal or close to one another. Furthermore, the effect of material softening is discussed. The effects of cladding a ductile layer on f-d diagram, EA and deformation of thin-walled circular tubes are numerically investigated. Adding soft material layers oriented at 30° to 70° to the model can increase the performance of energy absorbers by approximately 10 % compared with the model that uses only the core material.

本文提出了一种新的观点，用于能量吸收器装置的性能研究和优化，该观点是采用波纹管有限元方法进行数值介绍的。数值结果表明，结构或材料软化可导致最佳配置，在该配置下，波纹管或圆形管可达到其最佳性能。本研究中使用的性能和优化参数是吸收的碰撞能量和比能量吸收量。能量吸收器的力-位移（fd）图分为三个部分，以进行数值研究。当在冲程的不同阶段（即，变形的第一，中间和最后部分）的能量吸收值（EA）几乎彼此相等或接近时，可以观察到每个波纹管的最佳点。此外，讨论了材料软化的效果。数值研究了在fd图，EA和薄壁圆管变形上包覆韧性层的影响。与仅使用芯材的模型相比，在模型中添加方向为30°至70°的软质材料层可以将能量吸收器的性能提高大约10％。