Optimization of foam-filled double ellipse tubes under multiple loading cases

In this paper, a novel foam-filled double ellipse tube (F-DET) is proposed. First, the circle and ellipse tubes with three different configurations(hollow, foam-filled, double foam-filled) are investigated under axial and oblique impact by using the nonlinear finite element code LS-DYNA. The numerical results showed that the F-DET tube has the best crashworthiness performance than tubes with other configurations. Then to optimize the F-DET tube, the Kriging model about the radial rate f, thickness of wall t and foam density ρ f is constructed. Based on the Kriging model, the multiobjective particle swarm optimization (MOPSO) algorithm is utilized to achieve the optimized F-DET tube, foam-filled ellipse(F-ET) tube and foam-filled double circle(F-DCT) tube on the maximizing specific energy absorption (SEA) and minimizing peak crush force (PCF) under multiple loading angles. It can be found that the F-DET tube has better crashworthiness performance than F-ET tube and F-DCT tube. This indicates F-DET tube can be a potential energy absorber under the multiple loading cases. © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.