Experimental and numerical investigation of energy absorption performance of a bio-inspired hybrid energy absorption profile

Bio-inspired structures are used in many industrial sectors such as automotive, defense, aerospace and biomedical due to their high strength and lightweight. In recent years, bio-inspired structures have been used as an energy-absorbing profile with the developement of three-dimensional printing and simulation technologies. The spiral piece inspired by the trunk cross-section of the date palm tree (Lat. Phoenix dactylifera) was added to the hollow aluminum tube to create a bio-inspired hybrid energy-absorbing profile. The energy absorption performance of this bio-inspired hybrid energy-absorbing profile was investigated experimentally and numerically. Simulation models created by using ANSYS LS-DYNA were validated by axial crushing tests. Design optimization studies were carried out by using Response Surface Method and Kriging surrogate models in order to increase the energy absorption performance of the bio-inspired hybrid energy-absorbing profile with three different design variables (spiral revolution, wall thickness and cell number). It was obtained that the specific energy absorption capacity (SEA) and crash force efficiency (CFE) of the bio-inspired hybrid energy-absorbing profile in the initial design were %17,2 and %4,6 higher, respectively, compared to the hollow aluminum profile. It was obtained that the SEA capacity and peak force of the optimized bio-inspired hybrid energy-absorbing profile decreased by %32,9 and %47,6, respectively, but the CFE increased by %37 compared to the initial design. In addition, the SEA capacity of the optimized bio-inspired hybrid energy-absorbing profile decreased by %21,3 compared to the hollow aluminum tube, while CFE increased by %43,3.