Research Progress in Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering Vol. 3 No.

1 (2022) 1041-1048
© Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia Publisher’s Office

RPMME
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e-ISSN : 2773-4765

Simulation Study of Elliptical Thin-Walled

Structure Crash Box with Holed Initiator
Through Axial Impact
Jeffery Jep Brown1, Al Emran Ismail1*, Dave Kidau anak
Willie Chiak Mong1
1
Faculty of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, Universiti Tun Hussein Onn
Malaysia, Parit Raja, Johor, MALAYSIA

*Corresponding Author Designation

DOI: https://doi.org/10.30880/rpmme.2022.03.01.110
Received 01 Dec 2021; Accepted 01 April 2022; Available online 30 July 2022

Abstract: Crash box is a thin-walled structure which is used as a medium for energy
absorption to increase crashworthiness of vehicles during accidents by reducing impact
or energy received by passengers in the passenger compartment of a vehicle. This study
is to analyse the energy absorption performance of A36 steel elliptical shaped crash box
with holed initiators. Using ANSYS simulation software, the effects of holes on
elliptical shaped crash box by subjecting it to axial impact are analysed. Each designed
elliptical crash box with holed initiator is analysed using performance indicators such
as energy absorption value, crush force efficiency and specific energy absorption as to
understand effects of holes on elliptical shaped crash box. it was found that energy
absorption of the crash box is significantly increased but CFE values are also
significantly decreased.

Keywords: Elliptical Crash Box, Crashworthiness, Holed Initiator, ANSYS, Axial

Impact.

1. Introduction
To increase crashworthiness or energy absorption of vehicles, the introduction of thin-walled
structures such as crash boxes have been introduced in automobile industry as a medium to reduce
impact energy. The advantage of thin-walled structures is that they are lightweight and could reduce
fabrication cost while having excellent energy absorption characteristics [1]. Thin walled structures
reduce impact energy due to the fact that it deforms plastically during impact thus dissipates impact
energy and reduces the amount of energy which could be felt by the passengers [2]. Thin-walled
structures such as crash box is touted as a viable alternative due to its high energy absorption
characteristics, being lightweight, and low cost. Although, the energy absorption characteristics is
highly dependent on many factors such as its geometrical shape, material and other characteristics [3],
[4]. There is a plethora of research that has been carried out in improving the energy absorption of a
thin walled structures such as crash box due to direct axial impact [4]. Such as experiment done upon
thin walled kenaf fibre structure subjected to axial loading in order to investigate the crushing responses
of that structure.[5,6]. However, during vehicle collision or car accidents energy absorbers such as crash
*Corresponding author: [email protected]
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Brown J. J. et. al, Research Progress in Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering Vol. 3 No. 1 (2022) p. 1041-1048

box are subjected to both axial and oblique impact. Not to mention that each thin walled structure
systems performs differently in terms of energy absorption performance [1].
The analysis of hexagonal tubes, square tubes, rectangular, triangular and pyramidal systems and
found that circular tubes have the highest energy absorption capabilities and mean crushing force while
also produced a progressive folding mode which would increase energy absorption performances.
Although, they neglected testing elliptical shaped thin walled structures in which might have a better
energy absorption performance due to its surface area or through different deformation modes [7].
Foam-filled elliptical tubes under oblique loading using aluminium A6060 T4 and discovered that
energy absorption performance of foam filled elliptical thin walled structure is the highest of all
structures tested [2]. In addition, the elliptical thin walled structure is also shown to have the highest
performance in specific energy absorption than circular, square and rectangular [7,8].
Thin-walled structures usually have an ideal energy absorption performance after optimization
design although its crushing behaviour is sensitive to imperfections. Such that researchers have
investigated ways in decrease peak initial crush force and desired deformation modes through
imperfections. the introduction of holes in thin walled structure as a way of increasing performance of
thin walled structures as they conclude that holed thin wall structures have an increased in energy
absorption performance and a decrease in peak crushing force both in axial and oblique loading [9].
Too few holes in each row in the thin walled structure would create a non-uniform deformation during
folding process while too many holes decreases energy absorption performance of the structure which
is not ideal and would negate to objective of creating thin walled structure [10].
Recent advancements in technology has shifted researchers from experimental to computer aided
engineering (CAE) simulations (finite element analysis-FEA) based studies [11,12]. CAE such as
ANSYS is a technique widely used globally in design, analysis and optimization. The CAE simulations
reduce the need to manufacture expensive prototypes for physical testing and aid in comparison and
improvement of different concepts [1,13].
Thus, in this paper, the effect of holed initiators on the energy absorbing ability is studied. This is
to determine the most efficient number of holes and the positions of the holes on the crashworthiness.
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the value of energy absorption of the thin-walled structures.
Apart from that, this paper also studied the crush force efficiency. Last but not least, the specific energy
absorption is also to be determined.
2. Methodology
The elliptical thin-walled structure crash box was modelled using A36 steel. The length and
thickness of the structure was chosen following study done by Tarlochan et al to be 350mm and 2mm
respectively while major and minor axis is set at 62mm and 31mm respectively [3], while the radius of
the hole initiator set to be 3mm.
2.1 Simulation
The simulation is conducted with impact weightage set at 275kg and initial impact velocity 15.6m/s.
It was chosen due to the recommended guidelines from New Car Assessment Program (NCAP). The
angle of 30 degrees and 5 degrees is chosen due to it being said as the highest load enhancement without
a major reduction in mean force and the minimum difference between axial impact [3,11]. In addition,
due to it being a nonlinear dynamic to solve a dynamic equilibrium equation problem, the simulation is
done using ANSYS explicit dynamics since in explicit dynamic the total time is divided into a smaller
time steps or increments in which data of n+1 is obtained from previous time step (n) and has no
dependence on current time step [14]. Duration of simulation was set at 0.008 seconds with time step
safety factor at 0.9 and automatic mass scaling off. Furthermore, erosion controls were used on

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geometric strain limit and was set at 1.5 in order to avoid problems due to time step errors being too
small. Result number of points on output controls were set at 100.
2.2 Finite Element Modeling
The entire structure is comprised of the thin-walled structure or crash box and its fixed support base.
The thin-walled structure was modelled using element sizes of 2mm with a surface mesh method of
uniform and a mapped mesh method of prism as to avoid time step too small errors which could abruptly
end simulation before the required duration. The contact between all bodies was modelled as finite
sliding penalty based with the crash box and fixed support bonded together while coefficient of friction
is set at 0.2 [14], [15]. The top part and fixed support region were modelled as rigid structure as to
prevent deformation. In addition, the top part having one allowable displacement which is until 200mm
and other displacement either transitional or rotational is fixed. Figure 1 and Figure 2 shows the
modelled elliptical thin-walled structure crash box while Table 1 shows the specifications of the
designed elliptical thin-walled structure crash box with holed initiator which will be tested with the
original non-holed model.

Figure 1: Axial Crash Test

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Table 1: Characterization of the models

Model Original 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th

(3x3) (5x5) (10x 10) (3x5) (5x3)
Holes in X-axis 0 3 5 10 3 5
Holes in Y-axis 0 3 5 10 5 3
No. of Holes 0 9 25 100 15 15
(Front Face)
Total No. of 0 18 50 200 30 30
Holes
Spacing between - 50 mm 24 mm 10.5mm 45 mm 25 mm
holes (X-axis)
Spacing between - 165 mm 75 mm 35 mm 80 mm 150 mm
Holes (Y-axis)

2.3 Equations
Performance of crash box will be evaluated by crash response of each crash box design, which
are obtained through peak force (Fmax), energy absorption (Ea), crush force efficiency (CFE) and
specific energy absorption (SEA). Energy absorption or energy absorbed, Ea, of the structure is
equivalent to the area under the load-displacement curve or graph. Which can be calculated using (1),
𝑑𝑚𝑎𝑥
𝐸𝑎 = ∫0 𝐹𝑑𝑆 Eq.1

Crush force efficiency (CFE) is the ratio of average force to peak force. A ratio of which when close to
1 is desired for an ideal energy absorber or crash box can be determined using the equation (2)
𝐹𝑎𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑔𝑒
𝐶𝐹𝐸 = 𝐹𝑚𝑎𝑥
Eq. 2

Specific energy absorption, SEA is the energy absorbed by the structure per unit mass of the structure,
where it could be calculated using the equation (3),
𝐸𝑛𝑒𝑟𝑔𝑦 𝐴𝑏𝑠𝑜𝑟𝑏𝑒𝑑
𝑆𝐸𝐴 = Eq. 3
𝑀𝑎𝑠𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑐𝑟𝑎𝑠ℎ 𝑏𝑜𝑥

2.4 Validation of data

A validation of data was done with recreation of the design and settings used during the analysis
process done by them so that it could be recreated on the simulation of all holed elliptical shaped crash
box or thin-walled structure. Besides that, this is also as to get a validation on the effects of the holes
on the structure as to get a definitive analysis on its performance when holes are introduced to the
structure in terms of energy absorption, average force, crush force efficiency and graph of load-
displacement curve.

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Force (kN) 200

180
160
140
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200
Displacement (mm)

Axial Impact( Previous Study) Axial Impact (Current Study)

Figure 2: Comparison between previous study graph vs current study graph

Table 2: Comparison table between previous study graph vs current study graph

Indicators Axial/Direct Impact

Previous study Current study
Energy Absorbed (kJ) 17.29 17.50
Fmax (kN) 187.16 188.00
Faverage (kN) 85.87 86.78
Crushing Force Efficiency, CFE 0.46 0.46
Specific Energy Absorption, SEA 10.60 10.94

While the graph of axial and oblique impact is nearly similar although axial graphs have slight
difference in several displacement points but should not be a big factor since the error calculations for
energy absorption, peak force and crushing force efficiency is less than 5%. Thus, it can be concluded
that data recreation and validation is a success thus the next step of studying the effects of holed initiator
on crash box or elliptical structure could then be carried.

3. Results and Discussion

The results and discussion part were divided in to two parts. The first part was the results obtained
through simulation using ANSYS explicit dynamics while the second part will be the discussion of the
results obtained.
Table 3: Axial crash test

Model Original 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th

(3x3) (5x5) (10x 10) (3x5) (5x3)
EA (kJ) 17.5 77.2 70.2 65.6 80.2 51.9
Fmax (kN) 188 1110 1460 1540 1540 1110
Faverage (kN) 86.78 370.04 339.14 317.63 391.47 250.33
CFE 0.46 0.33 0.23 0.21 0.25 0.23
SEA (kJ/kg) 10.94 48.25 44.51 43.73 50.36 32.70

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1600

Force (kN) 1400

1200

1000

800

600

400

200

0
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200
Axial Impact (Original Design) Axial Impact(3x3 Holes) Displacement (mm)

Axial Impact(5x5 Holes) Axial Impact(10x10 Holes)

Axial Impact (3x5 Holes) Axial Impact (5x3 Holes)

Figure 3: Graph of force vs displacement

From Table 3 and Figure 3, it is evident that, introducing holes into elliptical crash box does increase
energy absorption and specific energy absorption value of the crash box significantly through axial
impact while also increasing its peak force before deformation. Although, the negative effect of it is the
crushing force efficiency of the crash box does suffer. A low CFE value of all of the models simply is
not viable for a good design crash box. Thus, introducing holes on elliptical crash box according to the
results is simply not a viable option if CFE value is at the most important. If CFE value is not an
important aspect, then introducing holes on the crash box is a great option as to increase the energy
absorption of the crash box. The matter of which decrease the CFE value of the elliptical crash box is
the peak force which the crash box generates and the rapid decrease in forces after the peak force is
achieved. A reason why probably the peak force increase is due to the force being distributed along the
crash box. This is seen when vertical holes are introduced in the crash box in which by example of 3x5
holes where more holes are introduced vertically did increase the peak force generated. Thus, holes in
the vertical direction do affect heavily on the peak force of the crash box. Another reason is due to the
moment of inertia of the crash box. When evaluating each designed model, it is observed that the
moment of inertia is increased in proportional fashion with the increase in the number of holes
introduced to the crash box. All the designed elliptical crash box with holed initiator was found to have
an increased moment of inertia value than the original elliptical crash box of the previous study.
4. Conclusion
In a nutshell, when holes are introduced on elliptical crash box, energy absorption of the crash box
is significantly increased but CFE values are also significantly decreased. Secondly, when peak force
has been achieved for elliptical crash box with holed initiator, there is a rapid decrease in force in which
decreases CFE value of the structure. Next, when peak force has been achieved, rapid deceleration than
stabilization of forces could be observed. If peak force could be decreased, thus CFE value of elliptical
holed crash box could increase significantly. Introducing only holes to the design of the crash box is
undesirable for crashworthiness since CFE value of the elliptical crash box is low, although decreasing

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peak force value while maintaining forces at a slow decrease rate would make the elliptical crash box
with holed initiator a viable design for crashworthiness application. Holes in the vertical direction
effects energy absorption performance of elliptical crash box more than horizontal holes. Furthermore,
increasing number of holes decreases axial impact energy absorption of elliptical crash box with holed
initiator while increasing energy absorption performance of elliptical crash box when crash box
undergoes oblique impact.
Acknowledgement
This research was made possible by funding from research grant number E15501 provided by
the Ministry of Higher Education, Malaysia. The authors would also like to thank the Faculty of
Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia for its support.
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