Title: Vehicle energy absorbers consisting of foldable cylinders using response surface methodology

Authors: Yang Yang; Sachiko Ishida; Xilu Zhao; Ichiro Hagiwara

Addresses: Graduate School of Advanced Mathematical Sciences, Meiji University, 4-21-1, Nakano, Tokyo, 164-8525, Japan ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, Meiji University, 1-1-1, Higashimita, Tama-ku, Kawasaki, Kanagawa, 214-8571, Japan ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, Saitama Institute of Technology, 1690, Fusaiji, Fukaya, Saitama, 369-0293, Japan ' Meiji Institute for Advanced Study of Mathematical Sciences, Meiji University, 4-21-1, Nakano, Tokyo, 164-8525, Japan

Abstract: In vehicle head-on collision, the side member cannot be collapsed more than 70% of its length because of its bulk. Moreover, its initial peak load is sometimes too high. So the authors have investigated the foldable origami cylinder structure - reversed spiral cylindrical (RSC) for the existing side member. RSC has solved these two problems mentioned above. In this paper, we treat so called crash box which is shorter than the side member. In the shorter length case, it makes much more difficult to solve the two problems mentioned above simultaneously. With using RSC for the crash box, it is requested to achieve that initial peak load is lower; meanwhile the amount of crash energy absorption is equal or higher than the existing energy absorber. In order to response to the difficulties, the authors try to seek an ideal design specification consisted by RSC and a straight cylinder.

Keywords: foldable origami cylinder structure; RSC; crash absorbed energy; origami engineering; load-displacement characteristics; response surface optimisation.

DOI: 10.1504/IJVP.2017.086907

International Journal of Vehicle Performance, 2017 Vol.3 No.4, pp.380 - 394

Received: 02 Apr 2016
Accepted: 19 Jan 2017
Published online: 02 Oct 2017 *

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