Mechanics of Advanced Materials and Structures

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Crashworthiness analysis of hexagonal

hierarchical gradient tubes with axial variable
thickness inspired by tree fractal structure

Xiaolin Deng, Yuwen Chen & Jiale Huang

To cite this article: Xiaolin Deng, Yuwen Chen & Jiale Huang (2023): Crashworthiness
analysis of hexagonal hierarchical gradient tubes with axial variable thickness inspired
by tree fractal structure, Mechanics of Advanced Materials and Structures, DOI:
10.1080/15376494.2023.2215778

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/15376494.2023.2215778

Published online: 31 May 2023.

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MECHANICS OF ADVANCED MATERIALS AND STRUCTURES
https://doi.org/10.1080/15376494.2023.2215778

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Crashworthiness analysis of hexagonal hierarchical gradient tubes with axial

variable thickness inspired by tree fractal structure
Xiaolin Denga, Yuwen Chenb, and Jiale Huangc
a
School of Electronics and Information Engineering, Wuzhou University, Wuzhou, China; bSchool of Mechanical Engineering, Guangxi
University, Nanning, China; cSchool of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou, China

ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY

Inspired by the tree fractal structure, a novel hexagonal hierarchical gradient tube with axial vari- Received 7 April 2023
able thickness (HHGAVT) is proposed and its crashworthiness performances are systematically Accepted 16 May 2023
investigated. Results show that when the axial variation coefficient of wall thickness k > 0, the
KEYWORDS
peak crushing force (PCF) of HHGAVT will significantly decrease meanwhile the energy absorption
Crashworthiness; thin-
maintains at a high level compared with the referenced structures under the same mass. When walled structures; axially
k > 0, the PCF and CFE of HHGAVT have absolute advantage compared with the uniform wall varying thickness;
thickness tube. The crashworthiness performance can further increase by rational designing the hexagonal tube; hierarchical
distance factor d.

1. Introduction proposed a series of thin-walled corrugated tubes inspired

Traffic safety has become a serious problem, which has
attracted extensive attention of researchers. During vehicle
collision, vulnerable road users (VRU) [1] may suffer serious
injuries or even be at risk of death. The crashworthiness
performances of front bumper of vehicle mainly determine
the severity of VRU injuries. Thin-walled structures have
been widely used in the fields of vehicles, ship, planes and
trains as the energy absorber to passively reduce the injuries
of passenger in accident. Polygon tubes, including triangle
[2], square [3], star [4], circle [5], hexagon [6, 7] and octa-
gon [8] tubes, are widely used in the thin-walled energy
absorption structures. A. AlaviNia et al. [9] compared the
crashworthiness performances of triangle, square and hexa-
gon tubes. They proved that the hexagon cross-sectional
thin-walled tube has the best crashworthiness performances
among these structures. Sun et al. [10] reviewed a large
number of literature on lightweight hybrid materials and
structures, and provided prospects for possible future
research.
With the increased requirement of lightweight and safety
in energy absorber, designing the lightweight, high-efficiency
and high crashworthiness performance thin-walled structure
is demanded. In recent years, bionic design is a commonly
used way to increase the structural performances. After hun-
dreds of millions of years of natural selection and evolution,
biomaterials exhibit superior mechanical properties and
multi functionality compared with the conventional inor-
ganic materials. Various bionic multicellular tubes were pro-
posed and investigated via imitating the natural structures,
such as bamboo [11, 12], woodpecker beak [13], tree-like
fractal structure [14], wood [15], conch [16]. Ma et al. [17]
by the microstructure of the horse hoof wall and investi-
gated their crushing behaviors under multiple loading condi-
tions. Zhang et al. [18] designed and investigated the
crashworthiness performances of a bionic tree-liked fractal
structure based on the tree fractal characteristic. Results
showed that the tree-liked fractal structure has great poten-
tial to improve specific energy absorption and crash force
efficiency compared with the single-walled structure. Zhang
et al. [19] proposed the bionic thin-walled tubes based on
the microstructure of bamboo and beetle forewings.
Compared to two traditional thin-walled tubes of the same
weight, the optimized bionic structure had increased specific
energy absorption of 44.124% and 125.058%, respectively.
He et al. [20] proposed an excellent energy absorption struc-
ture based on the lotus leaf vein branched structure. Based
on the structural characteristics of lotus, Gong et al. [21]
designed a lotus-inspired bionic multi-cell tube (LBMT) and
found that LBMT had better energy absorption behavior
than traditional multi-cell tubes. Inspired by the biological
structure, Gao et al. [22] developed the bio-inspired hier-
archical multi-cell hexagonal tubes (BHMH), and found that
the SEA of the third order BHMH is approximately 2.5
times that of multi-cell hexagonal tubes.
Numerous researches [20, 22–29] suggest that compared
with single cell tube, multicellular tubes have superior
energy absorption capability under axial loading. However,
as the cell number increase, the structural mass also
increases, leading to the large initial peak crushing force.
Decreasing the cell wall thickness may lower the initial peak
crushing force, but this will weaken the energy absorption
capability of structure at the same time. Therefore, lowering

CONTACT Jiale Huang scutjlhuang@163.com School of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou, China.
ß 2023 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
2 X. DENG ET AL.
the initial peak crushing force of multicellular tubes is
urgent.
Excellent energy absorption structure needs to have low
initial peak crushing force and high specific energy absorp-
tion, and functional gradient structures have great advantage
in reducing the initial peak crushing force [30]. Research
[31] shows that the gradient thickness characteristic can
enhance energy absorption performance at larger oblique
loading angles. Sun et al. [32] conducted a comprehensive
review of thin-walled multi-cell structures and materials in
recent decades, including classification, manufacturing meth-
ods, energy absorption mechanisms, experimental tests and
numerical simulation techniques, different loading condi-
tions and functional gradient structures. The functional gra-
dient structures can be divided as four types according to
their gradient forms: (1) the diameter or width of cross sec-
tion varies along longitudinal direction (such as conical
tubes [33, 34] and tapered square tubes [35, 36]), (2) the
wall thickness changes along axial or lateral direction, (3)
the mechanical properties of wall materials present gradient
distribution (such as density [37, 38] and strength [39]) and
(4) functional gradient multicellular (such as foam [40, 41]
and honeycomb [42, 43]) foam-filled tubes. Among them,
the most extensive researches are the functional gradient
structures along axial and lateral directions. By introducing
gradient characteristics into the structure and reasonably
designing the gradient parameters, the multicellular struc-
tures can decrease the initial peak crushing force meanwhile
maintain the high energy absorption capability. Asanjarani
et al. [36] investigated the effect of different cross-sectional
shapes, grooves and tapers on the crashworthiness of struc-
tures. Results showed that the shape of the cross section, the
degree of taper and the addition of grooves had a significant
effect on energy absorption behavior. Additionally, it was
found that hexagonal cross-sections exhibited better energy
absorption behavior. Zhou et al. [44] proposed a bionic
tapered tube based on the structure and mechanical proper-
ties of yak horn, and compared its specific energy absorp-
tion with traditional circular tubes, square tubes and conical
tubes. The results showed that the bionic tube had signifi-
cantly higher specific energy absorption. Han et al. [45] pro-
posed and investigated the crashworthiness performances of
a novel gradient auxetic tube. Results showed that gradient
auxetic tubular structures have higher overall stability,
higher energy absorption and higher specific energy absorp-
tion under inclined loads, and the improvement will be
more prominent when the difference of wall thickness
between the upper and lower sections of the gradient auxetic
tubular structure is larger. The axially varying thickness lat-
eral corrugated tubes were also proposed in our previous
studies [46, 47]. For the two key crashworthiness indexes of
initial peak crushing force and crushing force efficiency, the
gradient thickness tube has absolute advantages compared
with the uniform thickness tube, which has 44.53% decrease
in initial peak crushing force and 81.72% increase in crush-
ing force efficiency. The abovementioned studies clearly
show that the introduction of gradient characteristic will
lower the initial peak crushing force while maintain the high
energy absorption performance of thin-wall structures,
increasing the application scalability and design space of
energy absorption structures and materials.
In recent years, considerable attention has been focused
on the multicellular tubes with lateral hierarchical gradient
characteristics due to their excellent crashworthiness per-
formances. Inspired by the vascular bundles in plants, lateral
hierarchical gradient multicellular square tubes [24, 48] and
hexagonal tubes [49] were proposed and investigated in our
previous studies. Results showed that hierarchical gradient
structures have great advantages and potentials in energy
absorption. Inspired by the tree fractal structure, a novel
hexagonal hierarchical gradient tube with axial variable
thickness (HHGAVT) tubes is proposed in this study. In
order to achieve the high energy absorption characteristic
and low initial peak crushing force simultaneously, axial
variable wall thickness is introduced into the hierarchical
multicellular tubes. The crashworthiness performances of
novel HHGAVT are firstly compared with other hexagonal
multicellular tubes with uniform wall thickness. Then, effects
of hierarchical level and thickness variation coefficient k on
their crashworthiness performances under axial impact are
investigated. Finally, the structural deformation modes are
analyzed and the mode classification chart of HHGAVT is
obtained.
2. Materials and methods
2.1. Structural design
The tree fractural structure, annual rings of tree and the
evolutionary processes of bionic structures are shown in
Figure 1. The branches of the tree continue to grow more
branches, presenting a fractal structure, and the annual rings
of tree expand outward from the inside, presenting a hier-
archical structure. Inspired by this tree-like fractal and hier-
archical structure, a novel HHGAVT is proposed, in which
the connecting rib plates are like tree branches with con-
stantly fractal characteristics, and the hexagon rings expand
outward from the inside, presenting a hierarchical structure.
The HHGAVTs with the side length of the outer hexagonal
tube L0¼ 50 mm, the total height H ¼ 150 mm, the side
length of 1st level hexagon L1 ¼ 40 mm and the side length
of 2nd level hexagon L2 ¼ 30 mm are constructed. The
dimension of the inner hexagonal tubes is controlled by the
distance factor d, which is the vertex distance between the
adjacent hexagons. For example, the distance factor in
Figure 1b is calculated as follows: d1¼L0–L1 and d2¼L1–L2.
Numerous researches have been proved that axial variable
thickness thin-wall structures have great advantage in reduc-
ing the initial peak crushing force due to the fewer materials
in the impact end [30]. Therefore, in this study, thinner wall
thickness tmin is set at the impact end of the tube and
thicker wall thickness tmax is set at the fixed end. The wall
thickness of HHGAVT is linearly increased according to the
Equation (1), as shown in Figure 1c.


tx ¼ tmin þ kx
(1)
k ¼ ðtmax  tmin Þ=H
 MECHANICS OF ADVANCED MATERIALS AND STRUCTURES 3

Figure 1. Structure design: (a) branch fractal [18] and annual rings, (b) evolutionary process and (c) schematic diagram of axial thickness variation.

where tx is the wall thickness at a distance x from the

impact end, k is the axial variation coefficient of wall thick-
ness. When k ¼ 0, the wall thickness of tube turns into uni-
form. The wall thickness tm of uniform tube with the same
mass of HHGAVT can be calculated by Equation (2).
tmax þ tmin
tm ¼ (2)
2
In this study, tm is fixed as 1.2 mm. By changing the
value of tmin and tmax, different values of k can be obtained.
In this study, hexagonal hierarchical gradient tubes with
axial variable thickness with different hierarchical levels and
axial variation coefficients are established. These structures
are named “HHGAVTn-k”. The letter n represents the hier-
archical level, k represents the value of axial variation coeffi-
cient. For example, the HHGAVT3-k6 structure is the 3rd
order of HHGAVT with k ¼ 0.06.
Figure 2. Engineering stress-strain curve of AA6061-O [50].

2.2. Materials properties

The material of wall thickness of tube is aluminum alloy crushing distance as follows.
ðd
AA6061-O with the density of q ¼ 2700 kg/m3, Young’s
modulus E ¼ 68 GPa, Poisson’s ratio t ¼ 0.33, initial yield EA ¼ F ðxÞdx (3)
0
stress ry ¼ 71 MPa and ultimate stress ru ¼ 130.7 MPa. The
engineering stress-strain curve of aluminum alloy AA6061-O where F(x) is the instantaneous impact force, d is the crush-
is shown in Figure 2 ing distance. PCF is the maximum force of the force-dis-
placement curves. For the axial impact, the impact force will
reach the maximum value quickly. Therefore, PCF will occur
2.3. Crashworthiness indexes at the initial stage of impact, and it is also called initial peak
crushing force (IPCF).
To evaluate the crashworthiness performances of thin-walled Specific energy absorption (SEA) is defined as the energy
structures, six crashworthiness indexes, including energy absorption per unit mass, which is calculated as follows.
absorption (EA), peak crushing force (PCF), initial peak
crushing force (IPCF), specific energy absorption (SEA), EA
SEA ¼ (4)
mean crushing force (MCF) and crushing force efficiency m
(CFE), were adopted in this study. EA is the total energy where m is the mass of the thin-walled tube.
absorption of thin-walled structures during compression, Mean Crushing Force (MCF) is defined as the ratio of
which can be calculated by the product of impact force and total energy absorption to crushing distance as follows.
4 X. DENG ET AL.
EA
MCF ¼
d node shell continuum (S4R) element with five integration
Crushing Force Efficiency (CFE) is the ratio of mean
crushing force to peak crushing force as follows.
MCF
CFE ¼  100%
PCF
2.4. Finite element model construction and verification
2.4.1. Finite element model construction
The finite element models with a thin-walled tube and two
rigid plates are constructed in Abaqus/CAE 6.14-1 (Simulia
Copr., RI, USA), as shown in Figure 3. The thin-walled tube
is placed between the two rigid plates. The bottom of tube is
tied to the supporting rigid plate and all degrees of freedom
of the supporting rigid plate are fixed. The aluminum alloy
AA6061-O is low sensitive to the strain rate [51, 52], thus
the inertia effect of wall materials is neglected in this study.
Considering the efficiency of the structural analysis, the
mass of the impact rigid plate is set as 600 kg [53], and its
vertical impact velocity is set as 10 m/s. The crushing dis-
tance is set as 120 mm, which is the 80% of total structural
Figure 3. Finite element model.
Figure 4. Mesh size analysis results, (a) force and (b) energy absorption.
height (150 mm). In order to guarantee the convergence, 4-
(5)
points along the thickness direction is used in the finite
element models. The general contact (Explicit) is applied to
the model to simulate the interaction effect, and the friction
(6) coefficient is fixed as 0.2 [27].
2.4.2. Convergence analyses
The mesh size has great influence on the finite element
simulation. In general, larger mesh size leads to greater
numerical error. To eliminate the mesh size effect on the
calculated results, convergence analyses of 2nd order of
HHGAVT with five element sizes, including 1.3, 1.5, 1.7, 2
and 2.5 mm, were carried out. The results are shown in
Figure 4 and Table 1. Figure 4 shows that the mesh size has
relative large influence on the energy absorption, whereas, it
has less influence on the IPCF. Table 1 shows that the dif-
ference of energy absorption between mesh sizes of 2.5 and
1.3 mm is only 34.63%. However, when the mesh size
decreases to 1.5 mm, the difference is only 5.37%. For the
IPCF, the difference of mesh sizes between 2.5 and 1.3 mm
is only 1.67%. Figure 4 also shows that the computing time
dramatically increases as the mesh size decreases.
Synthetically considering the calculating error and comput-
ing time, the mesh size of 1.5 mm is chosen in the following
simulation.
2.4.3. Layered test
The HHGAVT is discretized into several uniform layers
with equal height, and each layer is given an individual wall
thickness value to achieve the axial variable thickness of the
thin-walled tube. Larger number of layers will better simu-
late the axial variable characteristics of wall thickness, but it
also increases the workload of modeling and simulation.
Here, the 2nd order of HHGAVTs with k ¼ 0.08 and tm ¼
1.2 mm are divided into 9 layers, 15 layers and 45 layers,
respectively, as shown in Figure 5a. The simulated results
are shown in Figure 5b and c. Figure 5b shows that the
force-displacement curves and energy absorption curves
between 15 layers and 45 layers HHGAVTs are almost the
same. When the compressed distance is equal to 120 mm,
the energy absorptions of 15 layers and 45 layers HHGAVTs
 MECHANICS OF ADVANCED MATERIALS AND STRUCTURES 5

are 10614.77 and 10874.57 J, respectively, which difference is point is only 4.97%. Moreover, the simulated deformation
only 2.39%. The IPCFs of 15 layers and 45 layers mode shows good agreement with experiment (Figure 6c),
HHGAVTs are 62.52 and 4.90 kN, respectively, which differ- suggesting the high accuracy of the finite element model.
ence is only 3.67%. Moreover, the final deformation mode
of l5 layers HHGAVT shows good agreement with 45 layers
3. Crashworthiness comparison of different
HHGAVT (Figure 5c). Therefore, 15 discrete layers are used
structures under the same mass
to simulate the axial variable characteristics of wall thickness
in this study. In this section, the HHGAVT3-k6 (3rd order HHGAVT
with k ¼ 0.06) and HHGAVT3-k0 are compared to other
multicellular structures which cross-sectional dimensions
2.4.4. Finite element model verification
and height are consistent with the HHGAVT3-k0. Taking
To verify the accuracy finite element model, a hexagonal
the HHGAVT3-k0 with thickness t ¼ 1.2 mm as reference,
tube with the same dimension to the Ref. [50] is constructed
the crashworthiness performances of HHGAVT3-k6, H,
and investigated. The side length, total height and wall
GAVT3-k0, H-KF1 [55], HHC-1 [23], HS2 [56], HT-2 [57],
thickness are 36, 120 and 1.2 mm [50], respectively. The wall Hx-mc-2 [9] and PSP06 [58] are carried out under the same
material is aluminum alloy AA6061O. The compressed vel- mass. The detailed data is shown in Table 2. Table 2 shows
ocity of experiment is 0.5 mm/min, which is too slow for the that except for the HHC-1, the SEA of HHGAVT3 with uni-
finite element simulation. Considering the low sensitivity of form wall thickness is almost the highest compared with
aluminum alloy AA6061O to strain rate [52] and the struc- other structures, and the maximum increase is 59.64%. The
tural inertial effect can be neglected under the low impact CFE of the HHGAVT3-k0 is up to 92.78%, which is much
velocity, the mesh size of 1.5 mm and the impact velocity of higher than other structure. Compared with the Hx-mc-2
1 m/s [54] are adopted in the simulation. The results are and HHC-1, the increases of CFE are 46.57% and 4.35%,
shown in Figure 6. The plot shows that the densification respectively. The SEA of HHGAVT3-k6 increases around
point of experiment occurs at the crushing distance of 1.34% compared with HHGAVT3-k0 due to its gradient
71.4 mm. Figure 6b shows that the energy absorption differ- characteristics. The PCF of HHGAVT3-k6 improves signifi-
ence between experiment and simulation at the densification cantly compared to other structure and the CFE of
HHGAVT3-k6 is up to 155.75%, which is 75.18% higher
Table 1. Detailed data of mesh size analysis. than HHC-1 and around 2.5 time as high as Hx-mc-2. The
Mesh size (mm) EA (J) Diff (%) PCF (kN) Diff (%) force-displacement and energy absorption curves of each
1.3 9619.78 – 114.48 – structure with the same mass are shown in Figure 7. The
1.5 10136.24 5.37 114.16 –0.28
1.7 10657.93 10.79 114.06 –0.37 plot shows that the force-displacement curve of the
2.0 11766.27 22.31 113.17 –1.15 HHGAVT3-k6 with axial variable thickness is different from
2.5 12950.84 34.63 112.56 –1.67
that of the conventional uniform-thickness thin-walled tube.

Figure 5. Layer test results: (a) three different stratification methods, (b) force-displacement and energy absorption curves and (c) final deformation mode diagram.
6 X. DENG ET AL.
Figure 6. Finite element model experiment[50] and numerical simulation verification: (a) force-displacement curve, (b) energy absorption curve and (c) deformation
mode.
The force-displacement curve of the conventional uniform-
thickness thin-walled tube experiences an initial peak force,
followed by a rapid drop, then a regular horizontal oscilla-
tion stage, and finally a densification stage. After the drop
behind initial peak force, the force-displacement curve of
HHGAVT3-k6 does not exhibit a regular fluctuation stage,
but it gradually increases and shows a climbing phenom-
enon during the impact process, until the final densification
stage. Because the wall thickness at the top of HHGAVT3-
k6 (which is close to the impact end) is the smallest relative
to other positions, the wall thickness increases as the impact
process progresses, leading to the greater reaction force.
Therefore, the force-displacement curve shows a gradually
increasing trend. The force-displacement curve shows that
the PCF of HHGAVT3-k6 is significantly lower than that of
other structures. While for the energy absorption, although
the energy absorption curve of HHGAVT3-k6 is lower than
that of other structures at the beginning of the impact, at
the end of the impact, the energy absorbed of HHGAVT3-
k6 is only less than HHC-1. The final folding diagram and
extracted schematic of cross section of different types of
structures are shown in Figure 8. The wrinkle shapes and
quantities of folding number of different structures are
clearly observed in the plot. The deformation modes of all
structures are the progressive folding mode and the folding
numbers of HHGAVT3-k0 and HHGAVT3-k6 are signifi-
cantly higher than other structures. The analysis results fully
demonstrate that the HHGAVTs proposed in this paper are
capable of maintaining the advantage of energy absorption
while significantly reducing PCF, thus having an absolute
advantage in the two key crashworthiness indicators of PCF
and CFE.
4. Parametric analysis
4.1. Effect of hierarchical level on the crashworthiness
performances of HHGAVT
Taking HHGAVT2 (tm ¼ 1.2 mm) as the reference, the
effect of hierarchical levels on the crashworthiness perform-
ances of four groups of HHGAVT structures (namely
group1 with k ¼ 0, group2 with k ¼ 0.03, group3 with
k ¼ 0.05 and group4 with k ¼ 0.07) was investigated under
axial impact, while ensuring that the mass of each structure
is the same. The corresponding final folding diagram and
extracted schematic of cross section of different groups are
shown in Figure 9. The plot shows that with the increase of
hierarchical level, the number of folds also increases,
improving the energy absorbing capability.
The force-displacement curves and energy absorption
curves for each group of structures are shown in Figures 10
and 11, respectively. Figure 10a shows that with the increase
of hierarchical level, the fluctuation of the force during the
platform stage decreases. The force-displacement curve of
HHGAVT3 in group 1 is smoother than that of HHGAVT0.
Moreover, with the increase of hierarchical level, the initial
 MECHANICS OF ADVANCED MATERIALS AND STRUCTURES 7

Table 2. Crashworthiness comparison of structures with the same mass.

Cross section Structure tm (mm) m (g) SEA (J/g) MCF (kN) PCF (kN) CFE (%)
HHGAVT3-k6 1.2000 604.55 34.23 172.57 110.80 155.75

This paper
HHGAVT3-k0 1.2000 604.55 33.79 170.36 183.62 92.78

This paper
H-KF1 2.3092 604.55 27.56 138.96 177.19 78.42

Ref. [55]
HHC-1 2.2213 604.55 38.69 195.04 219.38 88.91

Ref. [23]
HS2 2.4879 604.55 27.57 138.98 181.52 76.56

Ref. [56]
HT-2 1.6586 604.55 30.39 153.24 194.75 78.68

Ref. [57]
Hx-mc-2 3.3171 604.55 23.57 118.84 187.75 63.30

Ref. [9]
PSP06 1.7980 604.55 21.18 106.80 168.40 63.42

Ref. [58]

Figure 7. Comparison with same mass: (a) force-displacement curve and (b) energy absorption curve.

peak force decreases under the same mass condition. The
PCF of HHGAVT3, HHGAVT2 and HHGAVT1 is signifi-
cantly lower than that of HHGAVT0. Figure 10 also shows
that as the value of k increases, the force-displacement
curves of HHGAVT3 and HHGAVT2 show a clear gradual
increase, while the force-displacement curves of HHGAVT1
and HHGAVT0 are fluctuating but almost unchanged,
indicating that the higher the hierarchical level, the more
obvious the gradual increase of the force-displacement
curve. Figure 11 shows that with the increase of hierarchical
level, more energy is absorbed by HHGAVT. HHGAVT3
and HHGAVT2 absorb significantly more energy than
HHGAVT0, while HHGAVT0 absorbs more energy than
HHGAVT1. This phenomenon is attributed to the thicker
8 X. DENG ET AL.

Figure 8. Final folding diagram and extracted schematic of cross section of different types of structures.

Figure 9. Final folding diagram and extracted schematic of cross section of different groups.
 MECHANICS OF ADVANCED MATERIALS AND STRUCTURES 9

Figure 10. Force-displacement curves of HHGAVTs with different values of k (a) group 1, k ¼ 0, (b) group 2, k ¼ 0.03, (c) group 3, k ¼ 0.05, (d) group 4, k ¼ 0.07.

Figure 11. Energy absorption curve of HHGAVTs with different values of k (a) group 1, k ¼ 0, (b) group 2, k ¼ 0.03, (c) group 3, k ¼ 0.05, (d) group 4, k ¼ 0.07.
10 X. DENG ET AL.

Figure 12. Crashworthiness data comparison of different levels: (a) SEA, (b) MCF, (c) PCF, (d) CFE.

Table 3. Crashworthiness data of HHGAVTs with different hierarchical levels.

Group Tube tm (mm) m (g) SEA (J/g) MCF (kN) PCF (kN) CFE (%)
Group 1 (k ¼ 0) HHGAVT0 3.5357 429.59 19.82 71.01 128.13 55.42
HHGAVT1 1.7678 429.59 19.71 70.63 118.45 59.63
HHGAVT2 1.2000 429.59 23.60 84.55 116.40 72.64
HHGAVT3 0.8527 429.59 31.36 112.38 116.32 96.62
Group 2 (k ¼ 0.03) HHGAVT0 3.5357 429.59 19.68 70.53 119.84 58.86
HHGAVT1 1.7678 429.59 18.39 65.89 102.41 64.34
HHGAVT2 1.2000 429.59 24.49 87.75 92.66 94.70
HHGAVT3 0.8527 429.59 31.86 114.15 84.31 135.40
Group 3 (k ¼ 0.05) HHGAVT0 3.5357 429.59 19.49 69.83 113.48 61.53
HHGAVT1 1.7678 429.59 18.77 67.27 94.21 71.41
HHGAVT2 1.2000 429.59 24.37 87.32 80.31 108.73
HHGAVT3 0.8527 429.59 31.20 111.81 65.20 171.50
Group 4 (k ¼ 0.07) HHGAVT0 3.5357 429.59 19.37 69.42 108.19 64.17
HHGAVT1 1.7678 429.59 18.43 66.04 84.91 77.78
HHGAVT2 1.2000 429.59 24.73 88.61 67.20 131.86
HHGAVT3 0.8527 429.59 30.26 108.43 46.39 233.77

wall thickness of HHGAVT0 than HHGAVT1 under the
same mass condition. The larger wall thickness leads to the
fewer number of the folds, and finally resulting in poorer
energy absorption.
The comparison of crashworthiness data among different
hierarchical levels of HHGAVT is shown in Figure 12, and
the detailed data is shown in Table 3. Figure 12a and b
show that with the increase of hierarchical levels, both SEA
and MCF of HHGAVT are also increasing, and the higher
hierarchical level has larger energy absorption capability.
The SEA of HHGAVT3 in groups 1-4, compared to their
corresponding HHGAVT0, is increased by 58.22%, 61.89%,
60.08%, 56.22%, and the MCF is increased by 58.26%,
61.85%, 60.12%, 56.19%, respectively. Under the same mass
condition, the PCF of HHGAVT3 is smaller than that of
other hierarchical structures, indicating that the higher
hierarchical level leads to the lower PCF, and this phenom-
enon becomes more pronounced with the increase of k
value. Compared to HHGAVT0, the PCF of HHGAVT3
decreases by 9.22%, 29.65%, 42.54% and 57.12% at k ¼ 0,
k ¼ 0.03, k ¼ 0.05 and k ¼ 0.07, respectively. The decrease in
PCF will increase CFE, therefore, as the level increases, CFE
increases, as shown in Figure 12d. In Group 1, HHGAVT3
shows the highest increase in CFE compared to other struc-
tures, with a maximum increase of 74.34% and a minimum
increase of 33.01%. This advantage becomes more pro-
nounced as k increases. In group 4, the maximum increase
in CFE of HHGAVT3 is about 3.6 times compared to other
structures. Under the same mass condition, with the
increase of hierarchical level, the PCF of the structure
decreases while the SEA increases, significantly improving
its crashworthiness performance.

Figure 13. Deformation mode of the HHGAVTn with different k values.
4.2. Effect of axial variation coefficient of wall
thickness k
In this section, the influence of the axial variation coefficient
k on the crashworthiness performance of the structure was
investigated. Three groups of structures, including
HHGAVT1, HHGAVT2 and HHGAVT3, with the same
wall thickness tm of 1.2 mm were selected, and each group
was tested with six variables of k (including 0, 0.02, 0.04,
0.06, 0.08, 0.10). The mass of each structure within the
group was kept equal. The corresponding deformation
modes obtained by finite element simulation of HHGAVT1,
HHGAVT2 and HHGAVT3 under axial impact are shown
in Figure 13. A value of k > 0 means that the wall thickness
of the HHGAVT near the impact end is thinner, and the
folds are more likely to occur at the impact end. As shown
in Figure 13, structures with k > 0 are all crushed first at the
position near the impact end, and the starting position of
the first fold is closer to the impact end as the k value
increases. However, the structure with k ¼ 0 deforms not
only at the position near the impact end but also at the pos-
ition near the fixed end during the initial stage of impact. In
addition, the increase of the k value also results in a smaller
wavelength of the first fold in the structure, and as the
impact progresses, these smaller folds are further com-
pressed downward. It should be noted that when k > 0, the
wall thickness near the fixed end is thicker, and the com-
pression distance of structure is only 80% of the total length
H, resulting in the thicker wall not participating in plastic
deformation at last. For example, when k ¼ 0.08, there is still
a significant portion of the structure at the bottom that has
not undergone plastic deformation, which to some extent
impairs the overall energy absorption capacity of the struc-
ture, as shown in Figure 13.
The force-displacement curve of thin-walled tubes with
uniform wall thickness undergoes a rapid drop after the ini-
tial peak force, followed by a regular horizontal fluctuation
stage and a final densification stage, as shown in Figure 14.
After experiencing an initial peak force drop, the force-
MECHANICS OF ADVANCED MATERIALS AND STRUCTURES 11
displacement curve of HHGAVT with k > 0 do not exhibit a
regular stage of horizontal fluctuations. Instead, it gradually
rises and shows a climbing phenomenon as the impact pro-
cess continues, until the final stage of densification. The
force-displacement curve indicates that, in the initial stage
of impact, the force of the HHGAVT with uniform wall
thickness (k ¼ 0) is greater than that of HHGAVT with
k > 0, and as k increases, the initial peak force of HHGAVT
decreases continuously. In the later stage of impact, the
force of HHGAVT with k > 0 is significantly higher than
that of the HHGAVT with uniform wall thickness. The
energy absorption curve shows that, in the initial stage of
impact, the energy absorption of HHGAVT with k > 0 is
lower than that of HHGAVT with k ¼ 0, while at the end of
the impact, the energy absorption of HHGAVT with k > 0 is
equal to or even higher than that of HHGAVT with uniform
wall thickness.
The crashworthiness data of the HHGAVTs under differ-
ent values of k is presented in Figure 15. The plot shows
that the variation of the axial coefficient k has little effect on
the crashworthiness indicators of SEA and MCF. Note that
the SEA and MCF of HHGAVT2 and HHGAVT3 with
k > 0 are higher than the corresponding structure with uni-
form wall thickness. For example, the SEAs of HHGAVT2
and HHGAVT3 at k ¼ 0.08 are 5.51% and 3.41% higher than
those of the structures with k ¼ 0, respectively. The impact of
the axial coefficient k on the key crashworthiness indicators of
PCF and CFE is significant, as shown in Figure 15c and d.
The PCF of HHGAVT with k > 0 is significantly lower than
that of HHGAVT with k ¼ 0, while the CFE of HHGAVT
with k > 0 is significantly higher. HHGAVT with k > 0 has
an absolute advantage over HHGAVT with k ¼ 0 in terms of
PCF and CFE, and this phenomenon becomes more pro-
nounced as k increases. The PCF of HHGAVT3 with k > 0
is reduced by a maximum of 64.35%, while its CFE is
increased up to 182.22%, compared to HHGAVT3 with
k ¼ 0. Similarly, the PCF of HHGAVT2 with k > 0 is
reduced by a maximum of 60.40%, and its CFE is about 3.5
12 X. DENG ET AL.
Figure 14. Effect of different values of k on the structural crashworthiness performances, (a), (c), (e) force-displacement curves and (b), (d), (f) energy absorption
curves of HHGAVT1, HHGAVT 2 and HHGAVT 3, respectively.
times higher than that of HHGAVT3 with k ¼ 0. Therefore,
the HHGAVT with k > 0 not only maintains good energy
absorption performance but also slightly improves SEA and
MCF compared with the HHGAVT with k ¼ 0.
Furthermore, it significantly reduces PCF and increases
CFE. The above results clearly demonstrate that HHGAVT
with k > 0 has a significant advantage over the HHGAVT3
with k ¼ 0.
4.3. Effect of distance factor d
In section 2.1, the distance factor d, which is the vertex dis-
tance between the adjacent hexagons, has been defined. For
example, d1 ¼ L0–L1 and d2 ¼ L1–L2 are the distance factors
of the 1st and 2nd hierarchical level, respectively, where d1
and d2 represent the distances between the vertices of the
outer hexagon and the vertices of the second-level hexagon,
and between the vertices of the second-level hexagon and
the vertices of the inner hexagon, respectively. Here, the dis-
tance factors of different hierarchical levels are set as the
same (d1 ¼ d2 ¼ d), and the effect of d (including 10, 12,
15, 16 and 18 mm) on the structural crashworthiness per-
formances is investigated. Section 4.2 shows that the
HHGAVT with k ¼ 0.08 significantly reduces PCF while
increasing SEA. Therefore, the HHGAVT3 with k ¼ 0.08 is
used to investigate the effect of distance factor d, as shown
in Figure 16. Note that as d increases, the rids at the outer
region will intersect (d ¼ 18 mm). The force-displacement
curves and energy absorption curves with different values of
d are shown in Figure 17. The plot shows that the value of
d has little effect on PCF, and the PCF of each structure is
around 90 kN. From the energy absorption curves, it can be
seen that when d ¼ 18 mm, the energy absorption is greater
than other structures. This phenomenon is attributed to the
existence of cross rids in the outer region, which is
 MECHANICS OF ADVANCED MATERIALS AND STRUCTURES 13

Figure 15. Effect of different values of k on the crashworthiness performances of HHGAVT, (a) SEA, (b) MCF, (c) PCF, (d) CFE.

Figure 16. Cross sections HHGAVT3 with different values of d, (a) d ¼ 10 mm, (a) d ¼ 12 mm, (a) d ¼ 15 mm, (a) d ¼ 16 mm, (a) d ¼ 18 mm.

Figure 17. Effect of different values of d on the crashworthiness performances, (a) force-displacement curves and (b) energy absorption curves.

beneficial for energy absorption due to the increased num- discussion. Moreover, the energy absorption of HHGAVT3
bers of angle elements. To avoid the effect of the cross rids with d ¼ 15 mm is only second to that with d ¼ 18 mm.
on the crashworthiness performances, the analysis of the The crashworthiness data of HHGAVT3 with different
structure with d ¼ 18 mm will be neglected in the following values of d is shown in Figure 18, and detailed data is given
14 X. DENG ET AL.

Figure 18. Crashworthiness data of HHGAVT3 with different values of d, (a) SEA, (b) MCF, (c) PCF and (d) CFE.

Table 4. Crashworthiness data of HHGAVT3 with different different values of d. was carried out using the verified finite element model, and
d (mm) tm (mm) m (g) SEA (J/g) MCF (kN) PCF (kN) CFE (%) the following conclusions were obtained:
10 1.2 604.55 34.97 176.16 89.20 197.49
12 1.2 608.10 37.25 188.76 90.09 209.53
15 1.2 614.89 37.96 194.49 90.95 213.84
1. Compared to other structures, HHGAVT has an abso-
16 1.2 617.35 37.17 191.20 91.15 209.76 lute advantage in the key crashworthiness indicators of
18 1.2 621.62 39.48 204.51 91.26 224.10 PCF and CFE while maintaining the advantage of
energy absorption under the same mass.
2. As the number of hierarchical level increases, the num-
ber of folds also increases and the fluctuation of the
in Table 4. The plot shows that excluding the case of force-displacement curve of HHGAVT decreases while
d ¼ 18 mm, the HHGAVT3 with d ¼ 15 mm has higher SEA, its energy absorption increases. HHGAVT3 has the
MCF and CFE than other structures, meanwhile, the PCF of advantage of improving the crashworthiness of the
each structure is around 90 kN, with little difference to each structure while reducing PCF.
other. Compared with the HHGAVT3 with d ¼ 10 mm, the 3. For HHGAVT with k > 0, the first fold starts from the
HHGAVT3 with d ¼ 15 mm has a 8.55% increase in SEA, position near the impact end due to its thinner wall
10.41% increase in MCF and 8.28% increase in CFE. thickness, and the wavelength of the first fold decreases
Compared with the HHGAVT3 with d ¼ 12 mm, the as k increases. The force-displacement curve of
HHGAVT3 with d ¼ 15 mm has increased its SEA by 1.91%, HHGAVT with k > 0 is different from that of the uni-
MCF by 3.04% and CFE by 2.06%. Compared with the form wall thickness structure, and increasing k can
HHGAVT3 with d ¼ 16 mm, the HHGAVT3 with effectively reduce the PCF and significantly improve
d ¼ 15 mm has reduced weight and increased its SEA by the CFE.
2.13%, MCF by 1.72% and CFE by 1.95%. Therefore, 4. Reasonable setting the parameter d can fully utilize the
HHGAVT3 with d ¼ 15 mm has the best crashworthiness advantages of HHGAVT. Compared with HHGAVT3
performances. with d ¼ 16 mm, HHGAVT3 with d ¼ 15 mm has better
crashworthiness performances and lower weight.

5. Conclusions
Inspired by the tree fractal structure, the HHGAVT tubes
were proposed. The crashworthiness analysis of HHGAVT
Author contributions
Xiaolin Deng: Conceptualization, Methodology, Validation, Formal
analysis, Investigation, Data curation, Writing—original draft,
Supervision, Visualization. Yuwen Chen: Investigation, Data curation,

Writing—original draft. Jiale Huang: Conceptualization, Writing—ori-
ginal draft, Writing—review & editing, Supervision.
Disclosure statement
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influ-
ence the work reported in this paper.
Funding
This work is supported by National Natural Science Foundation of
China (No. 52065059) and Guangxi Science and Technology Base and
Talent Special Project (No. 2020AC19011).
Data availability statement
The data that support the findings of this study are available from the
corresponding author upon reasonable request.
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