Thin-walled tubes are widely used as energy absorption devices for their low cost and high manufacturability. Introduction of the origami technique enables the tube to follow a pre-determined failure mode and to improve its energy absorption efficiency. This paper examines the energy absorption characteristics of the origami crash box under quasi-static axial crushing. Both experimental and numerical results show that the origami pattern develops a diamond-shaped mode, bringing a reduction in initial peak force and a significant increase in energy absorption compared to the conventional hexagonal tube. The sensitivity of its energy absorption performance to various parameters is studied, and it is shown to achieve 68.29 % increase in the specific energy absorption and 13.91 % reduction in the initial peak force in the optimal case. Furthermore, an analytical solution is presented for the energy absorption, which achieves reasonable agreement with the numerical results.Published by Copernicus Publications.
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