Crushing mechanics of anti-tetrachiral column

This paper presents a novel chiral column to enhance the crashworthiness of the multicell energy absorber. The crashworthiness of the chiral column is conducted by experimental investigation, numerical simulation and theoretical analysis. Firstly, quasi-static crushing tests of three chiral columns are performed, and the anti-tetrachiral column (ATC) has more outstanding energy absorption (EA) than the standalone structure. In addition, the connection type of the ATC is investigated by numerical simulation. Results indicate that the ATC with connection has the best EA and crushing force efficiency. Furthermore, the parametric analysis is carried out to investigate the influence of node diameter D, node center distance L and wall thickness t on the crashworthiness. It is found that the increase of D increases the PCF of the ATC, but L has little effect on the PCF. In addition, the wall thickness ti of internal chiral structure has a greater effect on crashworthiness than the wall thickness to of external square tube. Lastly, an equivalent replacement method is used to theoretically predict the membrane energy, and the theoretical model of the mean crushing force is efficiently obtained by Simplified Super Folding Element. •Chiral column is proposed to enhance the crashworthiness of energy absorbers.•The synergistic behavior between the internal chiral column and the square tube promotes the energy absorption.•The node diameter has a critical effect on the deformation and energy absorption of chiral column.•The equivalent replacement method can well predict the membrane energy of the internal chiral structure.