Design Attributes for Geometry Optimization Process of Thin Walled Honeycomb Structures

Thin walled cellular structures have the ability to absorb impact energy during crashing thus it is important to enhance the crashing efficiency and optimise the structural reliability. This paper discusses the honeycomb cell configuration optimization procedure. For the design optimization, the response surface method (RSM) is used to formulate the complex design where the energy absorption (EA) representing the structure’s ability of absorbing energy was selected as objective, the Y split side parting length w1 , w2 , and thickness T1 are defined as three design variables, and the maximum crushing force (Max.F) occurs as constraint. During this distinctive optimization, the (RSM) was combined with detailed geometrically simplified finite element (FE) model using ANSYS/LS-DYNA (pre-processor), LS-DYNA (solver) and LS-Opt (optimiser). RSM combined with (FE)model without user intervention, was the effective tool to optimize non-linear impacted cellular structures. Optimal design achieved through LS-OPT is compared to the validated results for accuracy and effectiveness.Copyright © 2011 by ASME