Axial crashworthiness analysis of aluminum alloy hierarchical honeycomb-filled structures with corrugated configurations

GAO Dawei; YU Wenbo; LIU Zhe; WANG Mingjie; LI Hui

doi:10.16579/j.issn.1001.9669.2026.04.004

Abstract：[Objective]To address the issues of excessive initial peak crushing force and insufficient energy absorption efficiency of automotive crash boxes under impact loading,a novel hierarchical honeycomb-filled tube with corrugated configurations was proposed to enhance its axial crashworthiness through structural optimization.[Methods]Firstly,finite element models of hierarchical honeycomb-filled tubes were established to analyze the influence of three corrugation patterns(circular,triangular,and rectangular)on crashworthiness.Secondly,the force-displacement responses and energy absorption characteristics of conventional honeycomb-filled tubes and corrugated hierarchical honeycomb-filled tubes were compared to validate the peak force reduction effect of corrugation design.Then,the effects of key geometric parameters,including outer wall thickness,0-order and 1-order cell wall thicknesses,on specific energy absorption(SEA),initial peak crushing force(IPCF),and crushing force efficiency(CFE)were systematically investigated.Finally,multi-objective optimization was performed using the Kriging model and NSGA-Ⅲ algorithm,with corrugation shapes and wall thicknesses as design variables,to achieve an optimal configuration balancing high energy absorption and low peak force.[Results]The results show that the triangular corrugated hierarchical honeycomb-filled tube reduces the IPCF by approximately 36.2%,increases the SEA by 11.3%,and improves the CFE to 0.89 compared to the conventional tube.The outer wall thickness plays a dominant role in determining the IPCF,while the 1-order cell wall thickness contributes significantly to energy absorption,and the effect of the 0-order cell wall thickness is relatively minor.Under constant mass,the optimized structure achieves an interaction energy absorption ratio of up to 16.67%,demonstrating substantially enhanced overall crashworthiness.