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Configurational optimization of multi-cell topologies for multiple oblique loads

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Abstract

Multi-cell thin-walled structures exhibit significant advantages in maximizing energy absorption and minimizing mass during vehicle crashes. Since the topological distribution of wall members has an appreciable effect on the crashworthiness, their design signifies an important area of research. As a major energy absorber, multi-cell tubes are more commonly encounter oblique loading in real life. Thus, this study aimed to optimize multi-cell cross-sectional configuration of tubal structures for multiple oblique loading cases. An integer coded genetic algorithm (ICGA) is introduced here to optimize topological distribution of multi-celled web members for single/multiple oblique impacting conditions. Specifically, material distribution in a form of allocating web wall thickness, starting from zero, is considered as design variables and maximization of energy absorption (EA) as the design objective under the predefined peak crushing force and structural mass constraints. The optimization allows generating uniform or non-uniform thickness distribution in different web wall configurations to maximize usage efficiency of material. Compared with the baseline structure, the optimized configurations largely improved the energy absorption in both single and multiple load cases. The examples demonstrate that the proposed ICGA-based design method not only provides a useful approach to searching for novel crashworthy structures in a systematic fashion, but also develops a series of novel multi-cell topologies for multiple oblique loading cases.

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Acknowledgements

This work is supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (51575172). The first author Dr. Guangyong Sun is a recipient of Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA). The third author Dr. Jianguang Fang is a recipient of University of Technology Sydney (UTS) Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Research Fellowship.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Advanced Design and Manufacture for Vehicle Body, Hunan University, Changsha, 410082, China

    Guangyong Sun & Tangying Liu

  2. School of Aerospace, Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, 2006, Australia

    Guangyong Sun, Grant P. Steven & Qing Li

  3. Centre for Built Infrastructure Research, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, NSW, 2007, Australia

    Jianguang Fang

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  1. Guangyong Sun
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Correspondence to Guangyong Sun.

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Sun, G., Liu, T., Fang, J. et al. Configurational optimization of multi-cell topologies for multiple oblique loads. Struct Multidisc Optim 57, 469–488 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00158-017-1839-5

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