Thin–Walled Structures 160 (2021) 107337

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Thin-Walled Structures
journal homepage: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/tws

A novel design of thin-walled energy absorption structures with local

surface nanocrystallization
Xinsheng Xu a, b, Zhen Zhao a, c, Wei Wang a, Zhenzhen Tong a, c, Zhenhuan Zhou a, b, C.W. Lim b, d, *
a
State Key Laboratory of Structural Analysis for Industrial Equipment, Department of Engineering Mechanics, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, PR China
b
City University of Hong Kong Shenzhen Research Institute, Shenzhen, PR China
c
College of Locomotive and Rolling Stock Engineering, Dalian Jiaotong University, Dalian, 116028, PR China
d
Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering, City University of Hong Kong SAR, Hong Kong SAR, PR China

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: A high-efficient energy absorption design in virtue of ultrasonic impact surface nanocrystallization treatment is
Axial loading proposed to enhance the crashworthiness of square thin-walled tubes. Due to significant improvement on me­
Crashworthiness chanical characteristics within the treated areas, structural crashworthiness after surface nanocrystallization is
Energy absorption
significantly increased without the requirement of modifying configurations or mass. The results reveal that by
Local surface nanocrystallization
Square thin-walled tube
optimizing local surface nanocrystallization layouts with a nanocrystallization area treatment ratio of approxi­
mately 50%, the specific energy absorption is enhanced by 64.29% as compared to the untreated tube. Exper­
imental study validates that this technology is effective in the enhancement of the crashworthiness of square
thin-walled tubes.

1. Introduction Abramowicz [5] proposed a self-consistent theory to describe the basic

With the rapid development of urbanization, the increasing number
of automobiles on the road leads to frequent occurrences of traffic ac­
cidents. To improve the safety performance of automobiles, an efficient
design methodology for enhancing the effectiveness of energy absorp­
tion devices such as bumper absorbing box and bumper back-end
components during collision accidents has become a key issue in the
automobile manufacturing industry. Currently, thin-walled structures
are most widely used as energy absorption devices for automotive cars,
railways and aircrafts [1–3], this kind of structures are high in strength,
light in weight, low in cost and they buckles easily when subjected to an
impact. During collision, a large amount of energy is dissipated through
plastic deformation, expansion, splitting or bending of thin-walled
structures [4], thus the kinetic crushing impact on occupants and
vehicle mechanical components is very much alleviated. Higher-order
deformation modes of the thin-walled structures can be induced by
optimized parameters, which could directly improve the energy ab­
sorption effect. Therefore, the buckling mechanism and energy absorp­
tion characteristics of thin-walled structures have been extensively
studied.
At present, most of the theoretical studies are based on the basic
structures with circular and polygonal cross-sections. Wierzbicki and
folding mechanism of thin-walled structures. Langseth and Hopperstad
[6] found that the symmetrical mode appears in the static and dynamic
tests corresponds to the mixed modes. Abramowicz and Jones [7] pre­
sented a theoretical prediction of deformation modes and tested the
buckling deformation of the thin-walled square steel tubes. Apart from
the conventional square and polygonal thin-walled structures, new
cross-sections are proposed in the past few years to achieve higher en­
ergy absorption capacity. Tang et al. [8] designed non-convex 12-sided
and 20-sided tubes, the specific energy absorption and impact force ef­
ficiency of the new types of tubes are significantly improved compared
with ordinary square tube. Zhang et al. [9] designed a square tube en­
ergy absorption structure with gradient distribution along the direction
of thickness and the energy absorption can be increased by 30–35%.
Reddy et al. [10] proposed multi-corner thin-walled mild steel tubes and
found that the specific energy absorption of the tube with 12 edges was
2.72 times higher than the conventional square tubes.
In the design of thin-walled energy absorbing structures, different
methods including prefabricate holes, ribs, dents, corrugations and
multiple creases have been proposed. Song et al. [11] introduced
thin-walled square mild steel tubes with patterned windows, the initial
peak load was decreased by 63% while the specific energy absorption
was increased by 54% over the conventional tube. Ferdynus et al. [12]

* Corresponding author. Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering, City University of Hong Kong SAR, Hong Kong SAR, PR China.
E-mail address: bccwlim@cityu.edu.hk (C.W. Lim).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tws.2020.107337
Received 11 June 2020; Received in revised form 21 October 2020; Accepted 26 November 2020
Available online 11 December 2020
0263-8231/© 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
X. Xu et al.
investigated thin-walled aluminum square aluminum alloy tubes with
four dents at the corners and the depths of dents were optimized to
obtain a higher energy absorption efficiency. Mozafari et al. [13] pro­
posed a double-sided corrugated aluminum alloy tube and found that
the new design improved the total energy absorption compared with the
single-sided corrugated tube and classical straight tube. Li and You [14]
studied concave polygonal stainless steel tubes with origami patterns
and the specific energy absorption was found 3.3 times compared to a
square tube. Yang et al. [15] investigated the tubular brass tubes pre­
designed with ellipsoidal dimples and found that this design showed
substantially lower initial peak force and reduced fluctuation of crush­
ing impact. Ming et al. [16] proposed a Q235 steel crush box using the
kirigami method and observed 39.7% reduction on initial peak force and
33.9% enhancement on mean crushing force compared with the regular
square tube.
Based on the single-walled tubes, structures with double-tubular
components [17–19], multi-cells [20–22], hierarchical lattice and chi­
ral structures [23–25] were proposed to enhance the energy absorption
capacity. These novel designs exhibited an even higher energy absorp­
tion efficiency because the wave lengths were shortened and the plastic
bending moment were enlarged. In addition, filling foam inside the
matrix tubes also contributes to energy absorption enhancement in the
design of energy absorption devices. Chen and Wierzbicki [26] studied
foam-filled single-cell and multi-cell tubes, it was revealed that the
interaction effect between foam and tube wall was equivalent to
140–180% of the total crushing properties of the foam resistance. Cetin
and Baykasoğlu [27] produced a nontraditional low-density filler ma­
terial, namely the periodic lattice structure, as the filling component
inside the square thin-walled tube. The impact energy absorption
increased by 115% of the hybrid structures compared with the sum of
individual components.
The abovementioned attempts mainly focus on structural modifica­
tion and configuration designs. Meanwhile the energy absorption
properties can be promoted through employing new materials. Except
from the commonly used mild steel, stainless steel, aluminum alloy and
brass, high-strength steel [28], magnesium [29] and even paper [30] can
be used for absorbing energy. With the rapid development of composite
materials, composite thin-walled structures have been extensively
applied in the energy absorption designs. Zhu et al. [31] investigated the
CFRP composite multi-cell tubes and they discovered that the total en­
ergy absorption was increased by 69% for the multi-cell structures
compared with the single-cell counterpart. Abada and Ibrahim [32]
studied the multi-cell aluminum alloy tubes strengthened by wrapping
CFRP sheet and the results indicated that energy absorption was
enhanced by 131.70%. In addition, other functionally graded materials
and structures also contributed to the energy absorption designs and
they were proved to be effective for improving crashworthiness [33,34].
From the research literature above, it is found that the existing
design methods are able to improve the energy absorption effect, but
there still exist some limitations such as changing of initial shape,
reducing overall strength, and/or increased structural mass, etc. For
composite structures, they are higher in cost and more brittle than
wrought metals [35,36]. The susceptibility of composites to mechanical
damage, weak fire resistance, poor shear strength and low strain to
failure also make the structures vulnerable for damage and restrict the
crashworthiness potentials [37,38]. Therefore, it is necessary to intro­
duce more advanced research methods and processing techniques in the
design of energy absorption devices. In recent years, an advanced sur­
face nanocrystallization technology is introduced in this research. By
applying high frequency and high velocity impact, the top layer of metal
material is refined from coarse grains to gradient nano-grains, hence the
mechanical and chemical properties can be improved dramatically [39].
Surface nanocrystallization can be obtained through different ap­
proaches such as surface mechanical attrition [40], ultrasonic impact
treatment [41], laser shock processing [42], shot peening [43] and ul­
trasonic shot peening [44], etc. After surface nanocrystallization, the
2
Thin-Walled Structures 160 (2021) 107337
mechanical properties such as hardness, yield limit, fatigue, wear,
corrosion resistance can be significantly improved [45–48]. The utili­
zation of surface nanocrystallization will increase the energy absorption
capacity without changing the structural configuration, without
increasing manufacturing difficulty and without reducing local strength
which are usually a result of the conventional energy absorption designs.
Lu et al. [49–51] proposed a fully-nanocrystallized energy-absorbing
design of metal thin-walled hexagonal tubes by surface mechanical
attrition treatment (SMAT). Although the energy absorption capacity
was enhanced by 40% compared with the that of Toyota Yaris energy
absorption device, the design resulted in an increase of the peak
crushing force.
In this paper, ultrasonic impact treatment (UIT) is implemented for
surface nanocrystallization and a new design of local surface nano­
crystallized square thin-walled tubes in virtue of UIT is proposed to
enhance the energy absorption characteristics. Standard tensile tests for
untreated and nanocrystallized materials are carried out first to explore
the effect of surface nanocrystallization on the mechanical properties.
Subsequently specific local surface nanocrystallization layouts are
designed to optimize the energy absorption characteristics. Finally, a
comprehensively study based on numerical models and experimental
specimens is presented for crashworthiness promotion.
2. Ultrasonic impact nanocrystallization treatment
2.1. Surface nanocrystallization platform
Ultrasonic impact treatment or UIT is a cold processing technique
and it is more controllable for surface nanocrystallization operation.
This technology requires low manufacturing costs for industrial appli­
cations. Some previous papers revealed that UIT was widely applied in
various metals and the material yield stress was significantly enhanced
[52]. Based on the merits stated, a novel design of square thin-walled
energy absorption tubes aid UIT is proposed in this research and a sur­
face nanocrystallization working platform is constructed. Surface
nanocrystallization is realized in this work by using HY 2050G UIT
equipment with an ultrasonic vibration frequency of 20 kHz. The UIT
equipment mainly consists of the control box and the impact head. By
setting a specific working current, the impact head will hit the speci­
mens at different strengths. Based on the fundamental equipment, a
computer-controlled machine is assembled with the UIT equipment.
Compared with the conventional method by manually holding the
impact head using hands, the quality of surface nanocrystallization by
using a machine exhibits a higher treatment efficiency and better
smoothness. Designed nanocrystallization area is digitalized in the
computer and nanocrystallization is processed on the steel specimen
automatically. Thus the local surface nanocrystallization design layouts
can be produced practically with little processing errors. Besides, an
acoustic enclosure built with aluminium alloy truss and
sound-absorbing foam is used to reduce working noise during nano­
crystallization treatment. The surface nanocrystallization platform is
shown in Fig. 1.
2.2. Tensile tests
Square tubes made of 304 stainless steel are selected as the energy
absorption materials in this research. The mechanical properties of
nanocrystallized 304 stainless steel are studied first. Rectangular thin-
walled 304 stainless steel plates are clamped in a fixture and placed
on a working platform of the computer-controlled machine. To inves­
tigated the property improvements effect on surface nanocrystallization
intensity, the plates are nanocrystallized on a single side first with a
processing time of 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, or 2.0 min/cm2, then the plates are cut
into standard tensile specimens by wire electrical discharge machining,
as shown in Fig. 2.
The tensile test results are presented in Fig. 3 and Table 1. The
X. Xu et al. Thin-Walled Structures 160 (2021) 107337

3. Energy absorption of square thin-walled tubes

3.1. Structure details

Square tubes made of 304 stainless steel with width d = 60 mm,

height h = 120 mm and thickness t = 0.9 mm are selected for energy
absorption analysis in this paper. From the tensile test, double-side
surface nanocrystallization with 1.5 min/cm2 that shows the best
enhancement on elastic limit is selected for treating the square thin-
walled tubes. All nanocrystallization surface areas are treated with the
D-1.5 condition and treatment is processed by using the same computer-
controlled machine to minimize the processing error for different
specimens. For square tubes, the UIT impact head cannot be loaded at a
position perpendicular to the inner sides, thus the tune inner sides
cannot be directly nanocrystallized. Therefore, nanocrystallization is
first conducted on both sides of the thin-walled plates with designed
Fig. 1. Treatment platform for surface nanocrystallization. sizes, the plates are subsequently bent and welded to form square tubes.
The schematic of square thin-walled tube is shown in Fig. 4(a).
specimens with single-side nanocrystallization of 0.5, 1.0, 1.5 and 2.0
min/cm2 are abbreviated as S-0.5, S-1.0, S-1.5, S-2.0, respectively. It is
concluded that all specimens exhibit a similar ultimate strength,
whereas the nanocrystallized specimens show an increased elastic limit
compared with the untreated steel. The elastic limit is enhanced because
of increased nanocrystallization treatment time from 0.5 min/cm2 to
1.5 min/cm2. However, the yield limit decreases when the treatment
time further increases to 2.0 min/cm2. It indicates that an equilibrium
state exists for the effect of nanocrystallization and excessive processing
will reduce the mechanical property enhancement. The improved elastic
limit is accompanied by a decreased elongation which implies reduced
ductility after surface nanocrystallization. The result also reveals that
surface nanocrystallization has a great influence on the elastic strength
for 304 stainless steel and the specimens with 1.5 min/cm2 processing
on single side are most admirable among all specimens. Based on the
tensile test results, another set of tensile specimens with 1.5 min/cm2
nanocrystallization on double sides are processed and stretched in the
same manner. The specimens are expressed as D-1.5 and the tensile
results are displayed in Fig. 3 and Table 1. The tensile tests illustrate that
the specimens with double-side nanocrystallization indicate a higher
enhancement on elastic strength in comparison with the specimens with
single-side nanocrystallization. The elastic limit reaches to 704 MPa, Fig. 3. Tensile tests of 304 stainless steel with different nano­
which is 2.5 times equivalent to that of the untreated counterparts. crystallization manners.
Based on the super-folding element theory [53], the mean crushing force
is mainly determined by elastic limit and ultimate strength rather than
ductility. Therefore D-1.5 is chosen for further study in this paper. Table 1
Tensile properties of untreated and nanocrystallized 304 stainless steel.
Specimens Untreated S-0.5 S-1.0 S-1.5 S-2.0 D-1.5

Elastic limit (MPa) 283 428 456 600 541 704

Ultimate strength (MPa) 814 841 828 850 822 895
Elongation 0.48 0.46 0.43 0.36 0.41 0.31

Fig. 2. Standard tensile specimens with single-side nanocrystallization: (a) 0.5 min/cm2; (b) 1.0 min/cm2; (c) 1.5 min/cm2; (d) 2.0 min/cm2, and double-side
nanocrystallization: (e) 1.5 min/cm2.

3
X. Xu et al.
Fig. 4. Square thin-walled tubes: (a) geometric details; (b) untreated tube; (c)
fully nanocrystallized tube.
Square thin-walled tubes with complete surface nanocrystallization
are first manufactured and the energy absorption properties are
compared with the untreated tubes. All tubes are designed with identical
dimensions as illustrated in Fig. 4(a). Selected specimens are shown in
Fig. 4(b)–(c), the untreated and fully nanocrystallized tubes are weighed
with the mass of 195.7 g and 199.7 g, respectively.
3.2. Crashworthiness criteria
To evaluate energy absorption capacity, the generally five indicators
[54] including peak crushing force (PCF), energy absorption (EA), spe­
cific energy absorption (SEA), mean crushing force (MCF) and crashing
force efficiency (CFE) are used to describe crashworthiness
performance.
PCF indicates the first peak force (maximum compression strength),
which occurs immediately after the rigid body hits the structures and
generally contributes to the first fold. EA measures the energy absorbed
by buffering devices, which can be expressed as
∫d
EA = F(x) dx (1)
0
where d is the axial crushing distance and F(x) represents the function of
crushing force which varies with crushing distance. SEA denotes the
energy absorbed by a unit mass of structure and it can be calculated as
EA
SEA =
M
where M is the mass of the buffering device. Obviously, a higher SEA
represents better energy absorption capability. MCF is another indicator
to evaluate the energy absorption capacity by measuring the energy
absorption from the perspective of crushing force. It is given by
EA
MCF =
d locity conditions. The result indicates that the simulation model is
In addition, CFE denotes the crushing force stability and it is usually
Fig. 5. Deformation modes of untreated square tube under axial compression.
Thin-Walled Structures 160 (2021) 107337
obtained by the ratio of MCF and PCF as
MCF
CFE = × 100% (4)
PCF
It is generally accepted that a higher CFE indicates a more desirable
energy absorption design.
3.3. Axial compression tests
A series of axial compression tests are conducted by using the MTS
machine (Landmark 370.10) with the compression velocity of 4 mm/
min. Specimens of untreated and fully nanocrystallized tubes are studied
first, the compression displacement is 84 mm, that is 70% of the total
length of the square tube. The deformation modes at different
compression displacements are shown in Figs. 5 and 6. The compression
displacement and axial loading at different times are recorded and the
energy absorption properties are calculated via Eqs. (1)–(4) and listed in
Table 2.
From the deformation modes and energy absorption properties, it is
observed that both the two models buckle in the middle part and they
fold progressively. The buckling manners are not completely consistent
due to the different initial imperfections introduced during the
manufacturing process. Nevertheless, the fully nanocrystallized tube
exhibits significant enhancement of 79.5% on SEA, accompanied by an
increase of about 25% on CFE. It demonstrates that the nano­
crystallization technology has a great effect on improving the energy
absorption capacity for thin-walled tubes. However, PCF is also
increased after full surface nanocrystallization treatment. It is mainly
due to the enhanced elastic limit and this higher instantaneous impact
exerts a negative influence for energy absorption devices. Therefore, all
crashworthiness criteria must be taken into consideration and the
structures with comprehensively excellent energy absorption crash­
worthiness need to be proposed.
3.4. Numerical modelling and simulations
ANSYS Ls-dyna is used to simulate the buckling behaviours of the
square tubes with material parameters referenced in the tensile tests as
shown in Table 1. The square tubes are established with the same size as
mentioned in Sec. 3.1 and the nanocrystallization properties refer to the
D-1.5 specimen. The tubes are subjected to an axial impact by a rigid
body. The bottom of the tube is clamped and the top is free, while a 100
kg rigid wall is restricted which only moves in the axial direction. The
schematic diagram is illustrated in Fig. 7.
(2) Because the compression time for the quasi-static experiments is 4
mm/min, to improve the calculation efficiency and to save computa­
tional time, two methods including scaling up mass density and defor­
mation velocity are commonly used. For the scaling up method for
deformation velocity, the ratio of kinetic energy and internal energy
should remain as less than 5% so that the dynamic effects can be ignored
in the simulation [55]. In this study, the impact velocity is scaled up to 2
m/s and kinetic energy is 0.12% of the internal energy under this ve­
(3)
reliable for predicting the buckling behaviours of the square thin-walled
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X. Xu et al. Thin-Walled Structures 160 (2021) 107337

Fig. 6. Deformation modes of fully nanocrystallized square tube under axial compression.

Table 2
Experiments on energy absorption of untreated and fully nanocrystallized tubes.
Specimen PCF (kN) EA (J) SEA(J/kg) MCF (kN) CFE (%)

Untreated 32.76 1117 5707 13.27 40.51

Nanocrystallized 48.03 2046 10,245 24.31 50.62

Fig. 8. Mesh sensitivity study.

Fig. 7. Schematic diagram of square thin-walled tubes under axial impact.

tubes as mentioned in the experiments.

In this study, the shell 163 and solid 164 finite elements are used to
simulate the tube and rigid body, respectively. The elastic-plastic
bilinear constitutive relation is selected to characterize the material
model. The material properties in Table 1 are applied in the FEM sim­
ulations. Face-face contact is set between the tube and rigid body, the
tube itself is set with an automatic contact, and all contacts are designed
with a friction factor of 0.2. FE models of the untreated squares tube are
first established with different element sizes and the mesh size sensi­
tivity is studied. The MCF for models with mesh size of 5, 4.5, 4, 3.5, 3,
2.5, 2.25, 2, 1.75 and 1.5 mm are calculated and the mesh sensitivity is Fig. 9. Crushing force-displacement curves of untreated square tubes.
presented in Fig. 8. It is observed that for a mesh size smaller than 2.5
mm, the MCF tends to converge and the error between these models is this method has been generally implemented in simulating buckling
less than 3%. Hence, all models are designed with a mesh size of 2 mm in behaviours [14,27]. The crushing force-displacement curves and energy
this study. absorption properties are received and compared with the experiment
Numerical models of untreated and fully nanocrystallized square results, as shown in Figs. 9 and 10 and Table 3.
tubes are studied in this section. To characterize the initial defects From the comparison, it is found that the FE simulation result is in
introduced in the actual manufacturing and testing progress, geometric good agreement with experiment. The fully nanocrystallized tube can
imperfections derived from linear buckling are added in the models and absorb more energy than the untreated tube with an increase in PCF. The

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X. Xu et al. Thin-Walled Structures 160 (2021) 107337

In this work, square tubes with circumferential continuous stripes are

designed. The structural geometric dimensions are the as the examples
above. The stripe number on each side varies from 2 to 8 and they are
evenly distributed. Designs with an even number of stripes of 2, 4, 6, 8
are investigated first and the simulation models are presented in Fig. 11.
The energy absorption properties and ultimate buckling modes for
the four models in Fig. 11 are presented in Fig. 12 and Table 4. Among
the four models, the design with 4 circumferential continuous stripes
shows the highest SEA and CFE, while PCF is even less than the un­
treated simulation model and SEA is enhanced by 39.3%. With
increasing stripes, the energy absorption efficiency is decreased. This is
because too many stripes reduce the strength distribution effect caused
by local surface nanocrystallization treatment. As shown in Fig. 12,
compared with the 2-stripe and 4-stripe models, the deformation modes
for the 8-stripe model is less regular. Local distortions occur on buckling
folds which reduce the plastic buckling stability and eventually discount
energy absorption.

4.2. Effect of surface nanocrystallization area ratios

In Sec. 4.1, we focus on square tubes with even stripes with a

Fig. 10. Crushing force-displacement curves of fully nanocrystallized
nanocrystallization area equivalent to 50% of the overall surface area. In
square tubes.
this section, models with odd circumferential continuous stripes are
further studied. The numbers of stripes are 3, 5, 7 and they are evenly
Table 3 distributed. The nanocrystallized and untreated stripes are different thus
Comparison of numerical solutions and error for energy absorption of untreated the total nanocrystallization area varies accordingly. Based on the local
and fully nanocrystallized tubes. distributions as shown in Fig. 13, the nanocrystallization area ratios
Model PCF (kN) EA (J) SEA(J/kg) MCF (kN) CFE (%)
change from 33% to 67% correspondingly.
FE simulations for the buckling behaviour are conducted and the
Untreated 33.01 1092 5379 12.98 39.32
numerical result for SEA and CFE are presented in Table 5. The 4-stripe
Error (%) 0.76 − 2.2 − 5.7 − 2.2 − 2.9
Nanocrystallized 49.54 2082 10,256 24.74 49.93 model with the highest SEA among the 50% area ratio is also added for
Error (%) 3.1 1.8 0.1 1.8 − 1.4 comparison. The result reveals that with an increased ratio of nano­
crystallization area, SEA tends to rise accordingly. While for models with
an area ratio nearly 50%, the result fluctuates and it indicates that the
error between simulation and experiment remains less than 6%. It in­ energy absorption capacity is greatly affected by the local nano­
dicates that the FE models are reliable for predicting the energy ab­ crystallization layouts with this area ratio condition. Good comparison
sorption effectiveness of untreated and nanocrystallized thin-walled agreement on CFE is observed with the SEA result except for the fully
square tubes. nanocrystallized model because PCF is significantly increased after full
nanocrystallization. In energy absorption designs, PCF is more critical in
4. Local surface nanocrystallization layouts terms of safety because increasing PCF may cause severe injuries to
passengers. Thus, a full and complete nanocrystallized design is unde­
4.1. Circumferential continuous stripes design sirable due to its high PCF. In general, the 3-stripe model with a 67%
nanocrystallization area ratio is preferred for the best energy absorption
Experiment test and FE simulation result shows that the square tube performance despite a relatively higher nanocrystallization cost.
exhibits distinctive enhancement on SEA and CFE, and also with an Consider models with less than 50% of nanocrystallization area, the
increased PCF. To realize significant energy absorption without the 7-stripe design with 43% nanocrystallized area shows the highest SEA.
expense of an increased PCF, new local surface nanocrystallization The experiment specimen based on this design is selected to verify en­
layouts are designed to achieve a desirable energy absorption efficiency ergy absorption enhancement. The 7-stripe design specimens with 43%
with a lower nanocrystallization cost. nanocrystallized area is fabricated and presented in Fig. 14. The nano­
crystallized areas are highlighted and the ultimate buckling deformation
is also shown. The total mass for this specimen is 199.7 g.
A compression test is conducted with the testing conditions as
mentioned in Sec. 3.3. The energy absorption properties for this spec­
imen are calculated and compared with the simulation result as shown
in Table 6. The test specimen shows slightly better energy absorption
properties and the error remains less than 10%. It shows that the

Fig. 11. FE simulation models with even circumferential continuous stripes: (a) Fig. 12. Ultimate deformation modes for models with even circumferential
2 stripes; (b) 4 stripes; (c) 6 stripes; (d) 8 stripes. continuous stripes: (a) 2 stripes; (b) 4 stripes; (c) 6 stripes; (d) 8 stripes.

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X. Xu et al. Thin-Walled Structures 160 (2021) 107337

Table 4 proposed local surface nanocrystallization design is effective to enhance

Energy absorption of models with even circumferential continuous stripes. crashworthiness of square thin-walled tubes.
Stripe numbers PCF (kN) EA (J) SEA(J/kg) MCF (kN) CFE (%)

2 34.30 1386 6828 16.47 48.02

4.3. Designing tubes with circumferential staggered stripes
4 31.74 1521 7493 18.07 56.95
6 43.90 1520 7488 18.06 41.15 Inspired by tubes with continuous stripes, similar designs of
8 33.57 1384 6818 16.45 48.99 circumferential staggered stripes are proposed and investigated in this
section. The tubes are divided axial-wise with circumferential portions
having even widths. The nanocrystallized and untreated parts are ar­
ranged in staggered manners. Simulation models with different stripe
numbers are designed and the corresponding buckling behaviour is
analysed. The models and ultimate deformation modes are presented in
Fig. 15, while the energy absorption properties are listed in Table 7.
For increasing number of stripes, the energy absorption efficiency
increases first but it decreases at a stage later. The 3-stripe design cor­
responds to the highest SEA and CFE, with an enhancement of 64.29%
and 56.21%, respectively, compared with the untreated model. The
design SEA reaches 86% of the fully nanocrystallized model whereas the
Fig. 13. Designs of odd circumferential continuous stripes with various ratios surface nanocrystallization cost is reduced to one-half. Besides, PCF is
of nanocrystallization area: (a) 33%; (b) 40%; (c) 43%; (d) 57%; (e) 60%; 30% lower than that of the fully nanocrystallized one. Because CFE is
(f) 67%. increased, it indicates the square tubes with local surface nano­
crystallization design to have more superior crashworthiness and cost
performance than the fully nanocrystallized tubes.
Table 5
Comparison of SEA and CFE for models of circumferential continuous stripes
For models with increasing number of stripes, the crashworthiness is
design with various ratios of nanocrystallization area. discounted. The minimum SEA is a reduced 6389 J/kg which corre­
sponds to the 7-stripe model, and it equals to only 18.78% enhancement
Area ratio (%) 33 40 43 50 57 60 67
comparing to the untreated tube. This behaviour is similar to that ob­
SEA(J/kg) 6739 5463 7527 7493 6739 8951 9557 tained from designs with circumferential continuous stripes. It shows
CFE (%) 42.08 35.99 49.12 56.95 46.11 66.84 69.27
that the local nanocrystallization portions should be concentrated in
order to induce buckling deformation with higher energy absorption
capacities.
The crushing force-displacement relation for the local nano­
crystallization tubes with 3 and 7 stripes that represent circumferential
staggered models with the highest and the lowest energy absorption
effectiveness is illustrated in Fig. 16. The response reveals that for the
optimal 3-stripe design, PCF increases slightly and the crushing force
maintains at higher level than the untreated model. In addition, multiple
peaks are observed which indicate more plastic folds are generated in
this condition. On the other hand, the 7-stripe model shows a similar
crushing force level with the untreated one, PCF is increased by 12.4%
and CFE is only enhanced by 5.7%. The crushing force increases sharply
after the compression displacement exceeds 80 mm, which implies
structural compaction in the end of buckling deformation and the ma­
terial utilization rate is reduced. All tubes having local surface nano­
crystallization designs with circumferential staggered stripes maintains
an identical 50% ratio of nanocrystallization area. The great discrepancy
between energy absorption shows that structural crashworthiness is
highly dependent on the local nanocrystallization layouts. By designing
appropriate local nanocrystallization layouts, square thin-walled tubes
can be induced to deform in stable modes with an optimal crushing
energy absorption ability.

Fig. 14. Square tube with circumferential continuous 7-stripe design and 43%
nanocrystallized area.

Table 6
Energy absorption properties for circumferential continuous 7-stripe design with
43% nanocrystallized area.
Model PCF (kN) EA (J) SEA(J/kg) MCF (kN) CFE (%)

Simulation 36.97 1528 7527 18.15 49.12

Experiment 35.94 1593 7977 18.93 52.67
Error (%) − 2.8 4.3 6.0 4.3 7.2
Fig. 15. Layout designs and ultimate deformation modes for models with
circumferential staggered stripes: (a) 2 stripes; (b) 3 stripes; (c) 4 stripes; (d) 5
stripes; (e) 6 stripes; (f) 7 stripes; (g) 8 stripes.

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X. Xu et al. Thin-Walled Structures 160 (2021) 107337

Table 7
Energy absorption properties for models with circumferential staggered stripes.
Stripe number PCF (kN) EA (J) SEA(J/kg) MCF (kN) CFE (%)

2 37.58 1692 8335 20.11 53.51

3 34.71 1794 8837 21.32 61.42
4 34.98 1669 8221 19.83 56.70
5 34.70 1674 8246 19.89 57.33
6 35.96 1694 8344 20.13 55.98
7 37.09 1297 6389 15.41 41.56
8 35.15 1342 6611 15.95 45.37

Fig. 17. Comparison of MCF for untreated square tube and local nano­
crystallization tube with 3 circumferential staggered stripes.

Fig. 16. Crushing force-displacement relation for untreated square tube and
local nanocrystallization tubes with circumferential staggered stripes.

4.4. Energy absorption properties for axial dynamic crushing

The analysis and result in the prior sections are based on the quasi-
dynamic impact condition with a relatively low impact velocity. For
high velocity dynamic crushing, the square tubes after local surface
nanocrystallization are expected to show different energy absorption
properties. The optimal design with 3 circumferential staggered stripes
is further investigated under higher crushing velocities and the outcome
is compared with untreated cases. The MCF and PCF results are pre­
sented in Figs. 17 and 18.
From Fig. 17, it is observed that with increased crushing velocity,
PCF rises accordingly which reveals that its energy absorption capacity
also increases with a higher crushing velocity. Compared with untreated Fig. 18. Comparison of PCF for untreated square tube and local nano­
crystallization tube with 3 circumferential staggered stripes.
tube, the local nanocrystallized tube shows over 60% MCF enhancement
at all velocities and it demonstrates that local nanocrystallization is
effective for energy absorption under both low and high crushing ve­ absorption capacity. Consequently, the efficiency of local surface
locities. Among the different cases, the highest MCF enhancement of nanocrystallization technique in energy absorption design is verified.
78.03% corresponds to a velocity of 10 m/s which indicates that local
nanocrystallized is most effective on energy absorption capacity at a 5. Conclusion
moderate velocity. For PCF as presented in Fig. 18, although PCF in­
creases significantly at a low crushing velocity less than 6 m/s, the PCF A novel energy absorption design of square thin-walled tubes with
result for 3 stripes and untreated tubes are almost identical. While at UIT surface nanocrystallization is proposed. Tensile tests are carried out
higher velocities, PCF for local nanocrystallized tube rises and it is on nanocrystallized specimens. The elastic limit increases from 283 MPa
significantly higher than the untreated tubes. Since PCF is a more critical to 704 MPa for 304 stainless steel with double-sided 1.5 min/cm2
parameter for safety design and any increase in PCF must be avoided for nanocrystallization treatment. Specific local surface nanocrystallization
energy absorption design, it is concluded that local nanocrystallization layouts including circumferential continuous and staggered stripes are
tubes are not desirable for energy absorption for practical applications at designed subsequently and the effects of stripe number and nano­
high crushing velocities. Nevertheless, for relatively lower crushing crystallization area ratio are discussed. An optimal crashworthiness
velocities, PCF of local nanocrystallized tubes varies slightly compared design is reached for a tube with 3 circumferential staggered stripes and
with untreated tubes while there is significant enhancement in energy a 50% ratio of nanocrystallization area. The corresponding SEA and CFE
are enhanced by 64.29% and 56.21%, respectively, as compared with an

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X. Xu et al.
untreated model without any obvious increase in PCF. A comprehensive
series of experiments have been conducted to verify the numerical
models and simulations. For square thin-walled tubes, it is concluded
that local surface nanocrystallization with UIT treatment is remarkably
effective for enhancing structural crashworthiness. This is an innovative
technique for establishing an optimal energy absorption design that can
be widely and effectively applied in the transportation industries to
mitigate damages to critical vehicle compartments and to protect human
lives.
Declaration of competing interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence
the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the Shenzhen Science and Technology
Funding Program [grant number JCYJ20170413141248626], the
Dalian Innovation Foundation of Science and Technology [grant number
2018J11CY005], Aeronautical Science Foundation of China [grant
number 2018ZC63003] and State Key Laboratory of Structural Analysis
for Industrial Equipment [grant number G19109, S18313].
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