Crash Performance of Additively Manufactured Tapered Tube Crash Boxes: Influence of Material and Geometric Parameters

Crash boxes play a crucial role in mitigating forces during vehicle collisions by absorbing impact energy. Additive manufacturing (AM), particularly Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM), has emerged as a promising method for their fabrication due to its design flexibility and continuous advancements in material development. This study investigates the crash performance of tapered crash box configurations, each manufactured using two FDM materials: Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polylactic Acid (PLA-CF) and Polylactic Acid Plus (PLA+). The specimens vary in wall thickness and taper angles to evaluate the influence of geometric and material parameters on crashworthiness. Results demonstrate that both Specific Energy Absorption (SEA) and Crush Force Efficiency (CFE) increase with wall thickness and taper angle, with PLA-CF consistently outperforming PLA+ in both metrics. Regression models were developed based on experimental data to predict SEA and CFE with a maximum absolute percentage error of 4.97%. These models guided the design of new configurations, with the optimal case achieving an SEA of 31.53 kJ/kg and a CFE of 0.81. The findings confirm the effectiveness of the modeling approach and underscore the potential of PLA-CF in enhancing the energy absorption capability of crash boxes, particularly in tapered designs.