Influence of Elastic Support on the Energy Absorption in Front Crash Ductile Failure Criterion

Thin-walled structures like crash boxes may be used as energy absorption members in automotive chassis. There have been many studies addressing the behaviors of energy absorption members on frontal crash. These researches have attempted to predict the energy absorption and maximum impact load in shell structures. The energy absorption and maximum impact load depend on many parameters including boundary condition, strain rate, history of plastic deformation during metalworking, geometry; and material and impact energy (i.e. mass and velocity of the striker). This study examined the crash behavior of tube made of the extruded aluminum alloy EN AW-7108 T6 using an elastic boundary condition instead of rigid boundary condition- on the bottom of a crash box. Analytical, Numerical analytical methods is used in this study to simulated crash box behavior, Results showed that using elastic boundary could change the deformation mode and decrease the maximum impact load.