Abstract
Structural members of automobiles are required to improve collision safety and reduce weight for the purpose of lower fuel consumption. Therefore a thin-walled cylinder which has excellent energy absorption efficiency and lightweight is used for the shock absorber of structural members. This cylinder absorbs impact energy in the continuous plastic buckling distortion caused by axial impact loading. However the load histories of the axial crushing of the cylinder repeat the periodic variation with the local buckling. That is causing the decrease of energy absorption efficiency. For this reason, the design which suppresses variation of load lead to improved energy absorption efficiency. The purpose of this study is to develop members improved the stability of load. We examined the optimal cross-sectional shape of the cylinder to reduce the load variation with FEM analysis.
