چكيده به لاتين
In this investigation topology optimization of a thin-walled square tube is carried out in order to enhance its crashworthiness performance by removing inefficient material from the structure. Producing a pattern of discontinuities on the tube sidewalls, topology optimization is systematically searching for a material distribution that provide a high level of energy absorption with least material usage. The optimization code is prepared in MATLAB, using Bidirectional Evolutionary Structural Optimization concept, and integrated with ABAQUS software performing nonlinear analysis. Since the produced discontinuities are taken into account as a triggering mechanism, fluctuation in the energy absorption history is almost predictable which can impose a fundamental convergence issue in BESO algorithm. To overcome this challenge, several changes are applied to the algorithm which results in producing an optimal design of square tube satisfying the energy absorption constraint. Finally, the experimental investigation for topologically optimized tube shows 97.7 % energy absorption accompanied by 16.4% mass reduction, representing a reasonable agreement with numerical results. Also, it is found that the peak crushing force degrades about 23.3% for the selected design showing substantial enhancement in tube crashworthy characteristics.
