Application of smart honeycomb structures for automotive passive safety

Nowadays, most energy absorbing devices used in industry absorb energy through permanent deformation. In some cases, consumers have to repair or even replace energy absorbers even after a mild collision. The work presented in this paper proposes a novel re-usable solution in the form of a hybrid bumper-crush can design where a recoverable structure is integrated into the bumper beam and crush can for a mild collision situation in addition to the traditional energy absorbers recommended for more severe collisions. The main investigation is focused around the performance and optimisation of Negative Stiffness honeycomb, the recoverable structure and honeycomb-filled elements. A comprehensive study was undertaken to investigate numerically the behaviour of these energy absorbing structures under crash conditions, corresponding to real scenarios and simulated using a specially developed finite element model