Multi-objective robust optimization of foam-filled bionic thin-walled structures

Bio-inspired design has drawn increased attention in recent years for the excellent structural properties of biological system. In our recent work, a bionic thin-walled structure (BTS), which was inspired from the structural characteristic of horsetail, was found to have excellent crashworthiness (Yin et al., 2015) [1]. In order to further improve the crashworthiness of the BTS, a foam-filled bionic thin-walled structure (FBTS) was investigated using the software LS-DYNA in this study. And, the FBTS was optimized by a multi-objective deterministic optimization (MDO) method. The MDO result indicates that the FBTS performed better than the corresponding traditional structure. However, the deterministic optimal design is likely to become unacceptable when considering the uncertainties of design parameters. To solve this problem, a multi-objective robust optimization (MRO) method which employs ensemble metamodel, NSGA-II, “3-sigma” robust design and Monte Carlo simulation (MCS) was developed. Then, the FBTS was optimized by this MRO method. The comparison of the Pareto fronts of the MDO and MRO shows that the robust optimal FBTS is more reliable than the deterministic optimal FBTS. The robust optimal FBTS not only has excellent crashworthiness but also has high reliability. Therefore, the robust optimal FBTS is a kind of excellent and reliable energy absorber in impact engineering. •A new energy absorbed structure called as foam-filled horsetail-based bionic thin-walled structure (FBTS) was first investigated.•The crashworthiness of FBTS was found to be better than that of the traditional foam-filled circle thin-walled structure (FCTS).•A multi-objective robust optimization procedure which employs ensemble metamodel, NSGA-II, “3-sigma” robust design and Monte Carlo simulation (MCS) was developed.•The robust optimal design of FBTS has excellent as well as reliable energy absorption capacity and has potential application in impact engineering.