Finite element analysis of energy absorption characteristics for biomimetic thin-walled multi-cellular structure inspired by horsetails

Tubular thin-walled structure has attracted more and more attention because of its light weight and energy absorption characteristic, and has been widely applied to the fields of aerospace and automotive engineering. For millions of years, effective strategies in the biological tissues of nature creatures had evolved to synthesize structures that possess excellent mechanical properties. One impressive example is found in the internal morphology of horsetail plants. In this study, five kinds of the finite element model of multi-cellular thin-walled structures were established inspired by horsetails, and the energy absorption characteristics and crushing force efficiency of the above structures under axial impact loading were investigated by finite element method. Combined with the above bio-mimetic structures with good performance, a novel bio-mimetic multi-cellular thin-walled structure was proposed. The parameter study, including wall thickness, column diameter and impact angle were completed by numerical simulation method. The results show that the specific energy absorption and crushing force efficiency of the new proposed structure are 49.9 kJ/kg and 88.9% respectively, which are significantly higher than those of the conventional structure. The above bio-mimetic thin-walled structure inspired by horsetails can be applied in developing lightweight energy absorbing structure in the field of automotive or aircraft design. © 2021 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.