Crashworthiness Design and Optimization of Aluminum 
Thin-Walled Beam for Lightweight Electric Bus under 
Lateral Loading

Liangyu Li*; Yuanjun Fei; Fengling Gao

doi:10.70711/frim.v3i3.6187

Crashworthiness Design and Optimization of Aluminum Thin-Walled Beam for Lightweight Electric Bus under Lateral Loading

Liangyu Li*, Yuanjun Fei, Fengling Gao

Abstract

In order to ensure sufficient rollover safety of lightweight electric bus, the lateral crashworthiness of an aluminum thin-walled
beam mounted on such vehicle is designed and optimized in this paper. After determining the basic structural characteristics of the beam,
the finite element simulation model of the semi-cylinder foundation beam under lateral loading is constructed as well as the model accuracy and availability is verified by the three-point bending test. Based on combining of the foundation beam and different internal reinforced
structures, the optimal cross-section of the thin-walled beam is selected by conducting lateral crash simulation and comparative analysis.
The sequential updating metamodel based multi-objective optimization algorithm is establish by integrating optimal Latin hypercube sampling method, Kriging model, multi-objective particle swarm optimization method and adaptive supplemental sampling approach, whereby
the size of the beam is designed in details to balance its specific energy adsorption and maximum crash force. Compared with the initial
design, the two main crashworthiness indices are improved by 7.4% and 16.4%, illustrating the comprehensive performance of the thinwalled beam is optimized significantly.

Keywords

Aluminum Thin-Walled Beam; Lateral Loading; Crashworthiness Design; Multi-Objective Optimization

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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.70711/frim.v3i3.6187

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