Crashworthiness properties of square hierarchical multicellular tube under axial impact

A new square hierarchical multicellular tube design is introduced, and the crashworthiness of various square hierarchical multicellular tubes with identical wall thickness and mass is systematically analyzed using validated numerical models. The study explores the impact of parameters such as layer level, wall thickness, and impact load angle on the structure's impact resistance. Additionally, the impact resistance of square hierarchical multicellular tubes is compared to that of conventional square multicellular tubes with the same wall thickness. The findings reveal that the proposed square hierarchical multicellular tube effectively mitigates peak crushing forces and enhances crushing force efficiency under the same mass. Specifically, the third-order square hierarchical multicellular (SHMT-3) tube exhibits a 48.23% increase in specific energy absorption and a 75.14% improvement in crushing force efficiency. Notably, the peak crushing force decreases by 15.40% compared to that of the square tube. Under identical wall thickness, the crush force efficiency of SHMT-3 reaches 89.51%, marking a 125.21% improvement compared to square tube. Overall, the comprehensive crashworthiness of square hierarchical multicellular tubes surpasses that of traditional square multicellular tubes. These results contribute valuable insights for innovatively designing new hierarchical multicellular tube structures.