Fitting and prediction of the crushing process for Al–Zn–Mg alloy thin-walled double-cell profiles

Abstract

The properties of crushing and absorbing energy are important for the security of automobiles. In this work, the crushing curves and section features of Al–Zn–Mg alloy twin-cell thin-walled profiles were studied in detail. The crushing process comprises four typical stages: near-elastic deformation, hinge forming, hinge tightening, and folding stages. It was found that, in the near-elastic stage, the relationship between crushing force and displacement is approximately linear. The crushing moment in the hinge-forming stage conforms to the principle of conservation. The crush curve in the hinge-tightening stage conforms to the cosine hypothesis. The folding stage involves a repetition of the hinge-forming and hinge-tightening stages. Moreover, numerical models of these stages are built and compared with measured data to demonstrate the accuracy and validity of these models.