Crushing behaviour of a novel hybrid multi-cell structure

The multi-cell structures are widely used in engineering due to their excellent energy-absorption and ultra-lightweight properties. A novel hybrid multi-cell structure is proposed in this paper. The cross section of the structure contains round and diamond shapes. It is found that the multi-cell hybrid structure can increase energy-absorption, improving crashworthiness, and the hybrid order of structure has a significant effect on the mechanical properties. The mass and order have the most obvious effects on the energy-absorption capacity of the hybrid structure. Compared with traditional multi-cell tubes, the hybrid structure proposed in this paper has better mechanical properties. Based on the simplified super folding element theory, theoretical models are derived to predict the crush resistance of the multi-cell hybrid structure and the error between theoretical models and numerical simulation is less than 6%. The hybrid structure proposed in this paper has good industrial application prospects.