JOURNAL OF THE BRAZILIAN SOCIETY OF MECHANICAL SCIENCES AND ENGINEERING, cilt.42, sa.6, 2020 (SCI-Expanded)
In this paper, the efficiency of a new hybrid design of energy absorber systems is investigated to improve the capability of the system in absorbing the kinetic energy of vehicles in case of a crash. This setup implements two well-known energy absorption mechanisms simultaneously to enhance the energy dissipation capacity of the system while occupying a limited constant space. The system consists of two individual mechanisms, expansion of a circular tube accompanied by buckling of two inner tubes, which dissipates the energy through friction and plastic deformations. This study comprises several case studies surveyed under identical loading conditions. Experimental results are utilized to validate finite element simulations thereby analyzing several case studies so as to achieve the maximum efficiency of the system via geometrical optimizations. This study shows promising outcomes about the improvement in the system capacity in energy absorption while utilizing hybrid systems.