Efficient Crash Structure Design for Road Traffic Accidents of Tomorrow

This paper presents a much needed benchmark study providing an unbiased like-forl ike critical evaluation of the structural performance potential of a series of recently proposed innovative energy absorber designs relative to a reference square crosssection. The study is completed using a novel reduced order modelling approach enabling a detailed investigation that is not computationally prohibitive. The study confirms the potential of increasing specific energy absorbance for a number of innovative cross-sections but also highlights that some of these are more prone to a number of problematic aspects relating to real world implementation.