Optimal crashworthiness design of a spot-welded thin-walled hat section

In automotive industry, crashworthiness design is of special interest to ensure passengers safety and reduce vehicle costs. Thin-walled beams are the main energy absorbing structures in frontal and real collisions; therefore, it is important to investigate their energy-absorption and optimize their...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Finite elements in analysis and design Vol. 42; no. 10; pp. 846 - 855
Main Authors: Xiang, Yujiang, Wang, Qian, Fan, Zijie, Fang, Hongbing
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier B.V 01.06.2006
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ISSN:0168-874X, 1872-6925
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:In automotive industry, crashworthiness design is of special interest to ensure passengers safety and reduce vehicle costs. Thin-walled beams are the main energy absorbing structures in frontal and real collisions; therefore, it is important to investigate their energy-absorption and optimize their performance. For crashworthiness designs of thin-walled sections, much attention has been given to the size and shape designs of the cross-section, while limited study has been performed to incorporate spot-weld modelling and their numbers as design parameters in crashworthiness optimization. The spacing of spot-welds has a strong effect on crashworthiness performance, because it can change a single complete folding length. This study focuses on the optimal crashworthiness design of a spot-welded thin-walled hat section subject to an axial crushing force. Based on comparisons to experimental data, an appropriate spot-weld model is selected and used in numerical simulations. The mass of the beam is optimized subjected to constraints of required mean crushing force and bending stiffness. A “Two-step RSM-Enumeration” algorithm is employed to efficiently solve this optimization problem of mixed-type variables.
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ISSN:0168-874X
1872-6925
DOI:10.1016/j.finel.2006.01.001