Impact attenuation of a novel highway crash cushion using a kirigami corrugated honeycomb core

IF 8.3 1区工程技术 Q1 ENGINEERING, CIVIL

Thin-Walled Structures Pub Date : 2026-05-01 Epub Date: 2026-02-21 DOI:10.1016/j.tws.2026.114703

Wen Zhao , Zhejian Li , Hong Hao , Wensu Chen

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Redirective crash cushions are widely used in highway safety protection systems as impact attenuation devices. This study presents a novel redirective crash cushion that utilizes the Kirigami corrugated honeycomb (KC) structure as its primary energy absorbing (EA) module. A full-scale KC EA module was tested using a rigid car impact system to observe its performance and validate the finite element model. Using the validated model, a detailed numerical model of a vehicle and the novel crash cushion were developed. Based on the Chinese standard JTG B05–01–2013, vehicle impacts under different scenarios onto the crash cushion were simulated under the TA level (80 km/h) impact conditions to evaluate compliance in terms of the impact attenuation and redirection performance. A comparative analysis was also conducted against the existing arc-type crash cushion, focusing on three key aspects: occupant injury risk, post-impact vehicle kinematics, and cushion performance. Five indicators, including the vehicle’s acceleration and deformation, the vehicle exit angle, energy absorption, and overall deformation of the crash cushion, were considered to evaluate the performance. Furthermore, under TS level (100 km/h) impact conditions, a graded configuration of the KC modules with the same mass was introduced to enhance energy absorption. The results showed compliance of the proposed KC crash cushion with all requirements under various impact scenarios and improved performance as compared to the existing arc-type crash cushion. In frontal impacts, it reduced vehicle acceleration and reduced vehicle front deformation by 20 %, decreasing the occupant injury risk by 13 %. In 15-degree oblique impacts, it reduced the vehicle exit angle by 13°, thereby lowering the risk of secondary collisions. Additionally, the graded configuration improved the energy absorption capacity by 19 % and effectively controlled peak vehicle acceleration, further enhancing protective performance and demonstrating strong tunability. Overall, the KC crash cushion provides a lightweight, economical, and reliable solution for highway safety protection, representing a significant advancement in vehicle collision mitigation technology.

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一种新型公路碰撞减震器的冲击衰减研究

定向碰撞缓冲垫作为冲击衰减装置广泛应用于公路安全防护系统中。本研究提出了一种新型的重定向碰撞缓冲垫，该缓冲垫利用Kirigami波纹蜂窝（KC）结构作为其主要的能量吸收（EA）模块。采用汽车刚性碰撞系统对全尺寸KC EA模块进行了测试，以观察其性能并验证有限元模型。利用验证的模型，建立了车辆的详细数值模型和新型碰撞缓冲装置。基于中国标准JTG B05-01-2013，模拟了不同场景下车辆对缓冲垫的冲击，在TA级别（80 km/h）的冲击条件下，评估了缓冲垫在冲击衰减和重定向性能方面的合规性。与现有的弧形缓冲垫进行了对比分析，重点关注乘员伤害风险、碰撞后车辆运动学和缓冲性能三个关键方面。考虑了车辆加速度和变形、车辆出口角度、能量吸收、碰撞缓冲整体变形等5个指标来评价碰撞缓冲性能。此外，在TS级（100 km/h）冲击条件下，采用相同质量的KC模块分级配置，以增强能量吸收。结果表明，与现有的弧形缓冲垫相比，所提出的KC缓冲垫符合各种冲击情景下的所有要求，并且性能有所提高。在正面碰撞中，它降低了车辆加速度，减少了20%的车辆前部变形，降低了13%的乘员伤害风险。在15度的倾斜碰撞中，它将车辆的出口角度减少了13°，从而降低了二次碰撞的风险。此外，梯度配置提高了19%的能量吸收能力，有效地控制了车辆峰值加速度，进一步提高了防护性能，并表现出较强的可调性。总的来说，KC碰撞缓冲垫为高速公路安全保护提供了一种轻便、经济、可靠的解决方案，代表了车辆碰撞缓解技术的重大进步。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Thin-Walled Structures 工程技术-工程：土木

CiteScore

9.60

自引率

20.30%

发文量

801

审稿时长

66 days

期刊介绍： Thin-walled structures comprises an important and growing proportion of engineering construction with areas of application becoming increasingly diverse, ranging from aircraft, bridges, ships and oil rigs to storage vessels, industrial buildings and warehouses. Many factors, including cost and weight economy, new materials and processes and the growth of powerful methods of analysis have contributed to this growth, and led to the need for a journal which concentrates specifically on structures in which problems arise due to the thinness of the walls. This field includes cold– formed sections, plate and shell structures, reinforced plastics structures and aluminium structures, and is of importance in many branches of engineering. The primary criterion for consideration of papers in Thin–Walled Structures is that they must be concerned with thin–walled structures or the basic problems inherent in thin–walled structures. Provided this criterion is satisfied no restriction is placed on the type of construction, material or field of application. Papers on theory, experiment, design, etc., are published and it is expected that many papers will contain aspects of all three.