Numerical Study of Crashworthiness of Shrimp-Bioinspired Tubes for the Design of a Side-Door Beam

Abstract

To enhance the bending crashworthiness performance of thin-walled structures, novel bioinspired tubes based on shrimp tails are proposed. Four structures were designed and evaluated numerically using a three-point bending test by means of the finite element method. All structures were constructed with aluminum 6063-T6. The accuracy of the results was ensured by an initial experimental validation. Additionally, a more realistic simulation was achieved by considering Johnson-Cook failure models. According to the results, all bioinspired thin-walled structures (BTWS) exhibited better crashworthiness performance compared to typical circular tubes. However, the best performance was achieved by the tube BC-04, with a crush force efficiency of 0.837. Finally, from our findings, a novel design of side-door beam for automotive safety is proposed.