Thin-walled tubular structures integrating origami patterns and tension-dominated bulkheads for enhanced energy absorption

Abstract

In recent years, various strategies have been developed to improve the crashworthiness of thin-walled tubular structures. These methods primarily focus on energy absorption mechanisms such as material bending, fracture, and torsion. However, the outcome of these strategies appears to have reached a limit. For instance, the absorption of bending energy cannot be increased indefinitely by continuously introducing additional plastic hinges. To address this issue, this paper introduces a thin-walled tubular structure that leverages a Miura-inspired origami pattern combined with periodically arranged tension-dominated bulkheads at the creases. We demonstrate that the tensile action of the bulkheads and the partially folded origami pattern can reduce the peak load under compression, hence enhancing the crashworthiness. Tubes featuring origami patterns only(ori-b), as well as tubes that include both origami patterns and bulkheads(ori-b-t), were 3D printed via selective laser melting. The quasi-static compression test results reveal that the ori-b-t achieves a 50 % reduction in peak crushing force, while its crushing force efficiency is enhanced by 2.4 times compared to the square tube. The super-folding element theory was used to predict the mean load. The results show that after incorporating bulkheads, the percentage of energy absorbed via tensile action increased from 34 % to 59 % with respect to ori-b of the same thickness. Finally, numerical simulations mapped the role of a set of structural parameters—such as cross-section dimensions, number of modules, and relative thickness—on their crashworthiness and deformation modes. This study introduces a tensile deformation mechanism into thin-walled tubes with origami patterns for the first time, providing a new reference for the development of high-performance energy-absorbing structures.