Design optimization of thin-walled circular tubular structures with graded thickness under later impact loading

In order to improve the crashing performance under lateral impact scenario, a thin-walled circular tube with functionally graded thickness (FGT) is introduced with its superior performance in this paper. The wall thickness of the FGT tubual structure is graded along the axial direction. Based on the assumed graded thickness function, several important parameters (such as the graded exponent, the tube diameter and yield stress) are selected and their effects on dynamic energy absorption characteristics are discussed. The analyzed results show that the FGT has better crashworthiness in special energy absorption (SEA) and crash force efficiency (CFE) than uniform thickness (UT) tube. Then, the optimization design is further employed to obtain the Pareto fronts of the graded configuration under lateral impact loading. Note that the specific energy absorption (SEA) and crashing force efficiency (CFE) are regarded as the objectives, and the grading exponent, yield stress and diameter are defined as the design variables. The surrogate model with the best accuracy is chosen by error analysis for improving the accuracy of optimization process. Thus, the optimal solution is reasonably obtained and analyzed. The optimal results indicate that the FGT structures have significant potential applications into vehicle body especially under later impacting event.