Materials and Design 144 (2018) 229–244

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Materials and Design

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Crashworthiness behavior of Koch fractal structures

Jin Wang a, Yong Zhang a,b,⁎, Ning He a, Chun H. Wang b
a
College of Mechanical Engineering and Automation, Huaqiao University, Xiamen, China
b
School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia

H I G H L I G H T S G R A P H I C A L A B S T R A C T

• Thin-walled structures of Koch fractal

cross-sections offer great potential to
improve the crashworthiness.
• Fractal orders and thin-walled thick-
nesses have remarkable effect on spe-
cific energy absorption.
• Synergistic behavior of hybrid design
obviously improves the energy absorp-
tion performance.
• The 2nd order Koch fractal design out-
performs a wide range of multi-cell
structures with the same mass.

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Thin-walled structures are currently used in automotive and aerospace fields due to their excellent lightweight
Received 23 October 2017 and crashworthiness properties. This paper describes a new crush absorber design based on the Koch fractal
Received in revised form 12 February 2018 (KF) geometry to improve energy absorption performance. The crash performance of three Koch fractal designs,
Accepted 12 February 2018
one single-wall and two hybrid (double-wall), with different Koch fractal orders and wall thicknesses are inves-
Available online 16 February 2018
tigated by experimental testing and computational modelling. Computational models of 1st order basic Koch and
Keywords:
hybrid Koch structures are developed, with the predictions being compared with the experimental data. The
Crashworthiness computational simulations reveal a significant synergistic effect in the hybrid Koch structure, stemming from
Koch fractal structures the interaction between the inner Koch wall and the external wall. Among the three designs of Koch structures,
Synergistic effect the 2nd order hybrid Koch absorbers give the highest specific energy absorption performance. Furthermore,
Energy absorption these 2nd order hybrid Koch absorbers outperform a wide range of multi-cell structures of the same mass. The
findings of this research open up a new route of designing novel lightweight energy absorbers with improved
crash characteristics.
© 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction emerging to replace traditional single-cell structures. For example,

Lightweight crash energy absorbers are of great importance to a
wide range of applications to attenuate impact, limit maximum load,
and provide over-travel protection. A broad range of new designs are
⁎ Corresponding author at: College of Mechanical Engineering and Automation,
Huaqiao University, Xiamen, China.
E-mail address: zhangyong@hqu.edu.cn (Y. Zhang).
multi-cell thin-walled structures have been shown to absorb more en-
ergy than single cell structures of the same weight [1,2]. Kim et al. [3]
proposed a new multi-cell tube with four square cells at the corners
and found that this structure offered dramatic improvement in energy
absorption over the conventional square box column. Wu et al. [4] in-
vestigated the effect of the number of cells and the topological configu-
rations of multi-cell structures on their crashworthiness characteristics,
and found that five-cell structure showed the best energy absorption

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matdes.2018.02.035
0264-1275/© 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
230 J. Wang et al. / Materials and Design 144 (2018) 229–244
characteristics compared with other multi-cell tubes. Zheng and Sun
et al. [5] made significant contribution on crashworthiness of the later-
ally variable thickness (LVT) multi-cell square tubes, and they investi-
gated the crushing behavior of the LVT multi-cell square tubes by
experimental tests and analytical solution. The results showed that the
LVT multi-cell square tubes could significantly improve the efficiency
of material utilization for thin-walled structures. To improve energy ab-
sorption and to decrease peak crushing force, optimization designs [6,7]
had been applied to identify the best configuration and dimension for
multi-cell thin-walled structures, and found that the numerical optimi-
zation design was an effective method to improve the crashworthiness
of thin-walled structures and obtain optimal parameter configurations.
In thin-walled energy absorbers, the cross-sectional shape also af-
fects the energy absorption characteristics, for both single-walled and
multi-walled structures. Sun et al. [8] investigated the crashworthiness
of the criss-cross sectional tube shown in Fig. 1(a) and found that the
energy absorption of crisscross tube with spline curve connection was
about 150% higher than that of square column of the same weight. Wu
et al. [9] proposed a series of novel Fourier varying sectional tubes,
and found that the specific energy absorption of an optimum design of
Fourier tube (C1 = 0.2 and C2 = −0.3) (referring to Fig. 1(b)), is
62.9% more than the equivalent weight circular tube.
Liu et al. [10] studied the dynamic impacting performances of thin-
walled structures with star-shaped and polygon cross-sections shown
in Fig. 1(c). Their numerical results showed tube of combing the star-
shaped and polygon cross-sections gave a 40% higher energy absorption
than traditional polygon tubes. Another concept to improve crash per-
formance of the thin-walled tubes is to introduce internal ribs,
double-walled, and multi-corner constructions. Jusuf et al. [11] com-
pared the crashworthiness of the single-walled and double-walled
multi-cell columns subjected to dynamic axial impact, the results
showed that the energy absorption efficiency was significantly im-
proved by introducing internal ribs to the double-walled column
(Fig. 1(d)). Liu et al. [12] explored the energy absorption characteristics
of a double-walled structure with star shaped cross section core shown
in Fig. 1(e), and found that this new type of structure significantly in-
creased the crashworthiness through the interaction effect between
Fig. 1. Thin-walled structures with different cross sections: (a) criss-cross tube [8]; (b) Fourier varying sectional tube [9]; (c) tube combined star-shape and polygon [10]; (d) double-
walled tube with middle ribs [11]; (e) double-walled circular tube with star-shaped core [12]; (f) multi-corner column [13].
the core and the two walls. Furthermore, Tang et al. [13] found that
the thin-walled columns with non-convex multi-corner in the cross sec-
tion shown in Fig. 1(f) had higher energy absorption capacity than the
conventional square box column, and it was also an effective strategy
to improve the energy absorption efficiency of thin-walled columns.
Recently, a specific multi-corner fractal structure inspired by Koch to-
pology has attracted strong interest in physics and engineering applica-
tions. Horvath et al. [14] reviewed Koch fractals and their diffraction
behavior in physical optics, and pointed out that fractals could replace
the modulators of light. Zarrabi et al. [15] combined Koch fractals and T-
shaped stub to design a triple-notch ultra-wideband monopole antenna.
The results showed that this antenna offered better transmission than cir-
cular monopole antenna. Xia et al. [16] developed a high-performance mi-
crowave absorber using carbon fibre felts shaped in the form of Koch
fractals. They investigated the effects of the unit cell spacing and Koch pa-
rameters on the microwave absorption performance and found an opti-
mal spacing for a given frequency band. For structural applications,
Alberto et al. [17] analyzed and compared resonant frequencies between
a Koch (order = 3) cantilever beam and a rectilinear cantilever beam, and
results showed the Koch fractals design offered certain advantages.
Motivated by these promising findings, in this work we present a
first study of the crash energy absorption performance of thin-wall
structures with Koch fractal cross-sections. Section 2 first gives a brief
summary of Koch fractal theory and then introduces three new absorber
designs inspired by the Koch fractal geometry. Experimental tests are
presented in Section 3. To facilitate design optimization and parametric
analysis, Section 4 describes numerical models of Koch structures up to
3rd order. Computational analysis of the various designs is described in
Section 5, from which an optimal design of Koch fractal energy absorber
is identified.
2. Design based on Koch fractals
2.1. Koch fractal method
Fractal theory is an emerging discipline on geometrical design in re-
cent years [18], with Koch fractal [19,20] being one of the most classical
 J. Wang et al. / Materials and Design 144 (2018) 229–244 231

application of geometrical fractal theory. Koch fractal geometries are Table 1

constructed at each step by dividing each segment into three equal Configuration details of Koch fractal curves.

parts and then replacing the middle one with an equilateral triangle (θ Fractals Order Edge Edge Perimeter
= 60o) without its baseline. An example of constructing a 3rd order n length number length
Koch curve is illustrated in Fig. 2. Ln Qn Sn

A summary of the edge length, edge number, and perimeter length 0 L0 1 L0

are listed in Table 1. The recursive relation of side length between 1 1/3L0 4 4/3L0
near order can be defined as:
2 (1/3)2L0 42 (4/3)2L0

1 3 (1/3)3L0 43 (4/3)3L0
Ln ¼ Ln−1 ð1Þ
3

where, Ln and Ln−1 denote the edge lengths of the nth and (n − 1)th or-
ders, respectively. If the initial length of a straight segment is L0, the
edge length after n-th iteration is Ln = 1/3nL0. The number of sides fol-
lows the following relationship:
Q n ¼ 4Q n−1
the total length Sn is related to the side length Ln and the number of sides
Qn:

n
4 Three designs of Koch thin-walled tubes, consisting of Koch fractal
Sn ¼ Ln  Q n ¼ L0
3 (KF), a hybrid of circular wall with Koch fractal (C-KF), and a hybrid of
It is seen from Table 1 that the side length decreases but the total
length increases with fractal order due to that the side quantity in-
creases faster.
2.2. Koch fractal thin-walled structures
According to the Koch fractal method in Section 2.1, a series of novel
Koch fractal cross-sectional shapes (commonly known as Koch snow-
flake) are presented in Table 2. Starting from a triangle as the initial ge-
ometry (0th order), a series of Koch fractal closed-curve profiles with
different orders, named as KF series, are constructed and shown in the
first row of Table 2. The second and third rows of Table 2 show two
types of hybrid Koch structures constructed by combining the Koch pro-
files with a circular and hexagonal external wall, which are named as C-
KF series and H-KF series, respectively. The different orders of these
structures are denoted by the subscript. The side length of the original
triangle (KF0) and hexagonal external wall Lhex are 60 mm and
34.64 mm, respectively, and the diameter of the circular external wall
D is 69.28 mm. The wall thickness of different order Koch structures
with the same mass can be expressed as:
ð2Þ
n
3
tn ¼ t 0 ; for equal mass ð4Þ
4
where t0 and tn are the wall thickness of 0th and nth Koch structures.
ð3Þ
hexagonal and Koch fractal (H-KF) of different fractal orders are con-
structed and shown in Fig. 3(a). The wall thickness of thin-walled
tubes is a design variable. If the mass of the absorber needs to be kept
constant, the wall thickness can be varied accordingly.
To quantify the crashworthiness of these three new designs, experi-
mental tests and numerical simulations using the finite element method
will be carried out. Based on the energy absorber applications of passen-
ger vehicle shown in Fig. 3(b) [21], a schematic diagram of the thin-
walled columns under axial dynamic loading is shown in Fig. 3(c). The
length of columns is 200 mm, and they will be axially loaded by an im-
pactor with a mass of 500 kg at a velocity of 15 m/s to simulate a typical
crash process [22]. The non-impacted end of tube is constrained by a
rigid support. Details will be provided in the following section.
3. Experimental details
3.1. Specimens and material characteristics
To accurately identify the material characteristics, a tensile specimen
was cut from a block of aluminum alloy 6061-O, which underwent an-
nealing treatment by the manufacturer. The geometry and dimension of
the specimens are illustrated in Fig. 4. The basic material properties of alu-
minum alloy 6061-O are as follows: density ρ = 2.7 × 103 kg/m3; elastic

Table 2
Geometries profiles of Koch fractal structures and hybrid structures.

Geometrical Fractal orders

types
0th 1st 2nd 3rd

KF

C-KF

H-KF

Fig. 2. Construction method of Koch fractal curves.

232 J. Wang et al. / Materials and Design 144 (2018) 229–244
Fig. 3. Schematic diagram of thin-walled tube under axial loading: (a) Koch fractal structures; (b) the white body of an Audi car [21] with the circular energy absorber; (c) schematic
diagram of crushing process.
modulus E = 68.2 GPa; Poison's ratio μ = 0.3; initial yield stress =
96.8 MPa. Tensile tests of the specimen were carried out to characterize
the stress-strain relationship. The true stress-strain and the stress-
plastic strain curves are shown in Fig. 4, from which the strain hardening
Fig. 4. The stress-strain curves of aluminum alloy 6061-O.
properties are obtained. The specimens of 1st Koch thin-walled columns
(KF1, C-KF1 and H-KF1) were fabricated by the wire cut electrical dis-
charge machining (WEDM) technique from blocks of aluminum alloy
6061-O, as shown in Fig. 5. This WEDM technique used the continuous
moving electrode wire to generate pulse spark discharge etching the ma-
terials. The wall thicknesses for the three different specimens KF1, C-KF1
and H-KF1 were respectively 0.5 mm, 1.0 mm, and 1.0 mm; the inner frac-
tal section and the outer wall were of the same thickness. The side lengths
of Koch profiles for KF1, C-KF1 and H-KF1 were 30 mm, 60 mm and
60 mm, respectively. The external hexagonal wall and the circular wall
had the same diameter of 69.28 mm. All three 1st order Koch structures
were of equal length of 110 mm, which was the maximum length allowed
by the WEDM machine used in this work.
3.2. Experimental tests and results
To analyze and study the crashworthiness behavior of the 1st order
Koch fractal structures, quasi-static tests were carried out by a MTS uni-
versal material testing machine (Fig. 6(a)). The specimens were placed
on the lower platform (Fig. 6(b)), while load was applied by moving the
upper platen (pressure head) down at a velocity of 5 mm/min. Load was
terminated when the crushing displacement reached 60 mm. The defor-
mation process was recorded by a Nikon D7000 digital camera, and the
crushing force and displacement data were collected by the MTS univer-
sal mechanical testing machine. The deformation modes pertinent to
60 mm crushing displacement were described in Fig. 6(c). It can be
seen that KF1 underwent the regular progressive collapse, which was
the efficient energy absorption mode [23] due to its small variation in
crush load. During the crushing process, the progressive collapse
 J. Wang et al. / Materials and Design 144 (2018) 229–244 233

Fig. 5. Experimental specimens of KF1, C-KF1 and H-KF1 with different geometrical dimensions.

Fig. 6. Quasi-static tests of the 1st order Koch structures: (a) the MTS universal material testing machine; (b) the crushing figure of specimens; (c) collapse modes of KF1, C-KF1, and H-KF1
at 60 mm crushing displacement.
234 J. Wang et al. / Materials and Design 144 (2018) 229–244

process of KF1 initiated at the bottom end, followed by regular folds
stacking onto the first fold. Collapse modes of C-KF1 and H-KF1 at
60 mm crushing displacement were presented in Fig. 6(c). Compared
with H-KF1, the C-KF1 design showed a different collapse mode. The
inextensional deformation mode was observed around all of the corners
while only two corners in H-KF1 experienced extensional deformation
mode [24]. Moreover, H-KF1 had fewer folding lobes and longer folding
wavelength than C-KF1, and C-KF1 also exhibited more plastic hinges
and more complicated folding pattern than H-KF1, including bending
and torsion, which contributed to higher energy absorption as discussed
below.
To quantitatively evaluate the energy absorption of the 1st order
Koch fractal structures (KF1, C-KF1 and H-KF1), several crashworthiness
indicators, defined below, are computed from the experimental data.
Energy Absorption (EA) refers to the total energy absorbed during an
impact event, which is calculated as the area under the crushing force-
displacement curve,
Z d
EA ¼ F ðxÞdx
0
where d denotes the axial crushing displacement and F(x) is the crush
force.
Specific Energy Absorption (SEA) is the energy absorption per unit
mass of a thin-walled tube, which is considered as the most important
indicator in designing energy absorption devices by considering light-
weight as objective. SEA can be calculated from EA as,
4. Numerical modelling and validation
4.1. Finite element modelling
To simulate the dynamic crushing behavior of the three new designs,
finite element (FE) models of the Koch structures shown in Fig. 7 were de-
veloped using the nonlinear explicit finite element code LS-DYNA. The
geometrical dimensions of the models were the same as those shown in
Fig. 3(a). The columns were meshed using the Belytschko-Tsay reduced
integration thin shell elements [25]. The finite element models of Koch
fractal structures with element size of 2.0 mm × 2.0 mm were shown in
Fig. 7. To determine the appropriate element size, convergence analyses
were carried out. Fig. 8 presented the convergence behavior of the 3rd
order Koch tube (KF3) with different element sizes, it was seen that
the energy absorption gradually converged when the element dimen-
sion decreased to 1.0 mm × 1.0 mm. Therefore, this element size of
1.0 mm × 1.0 mm was used herein.
The impactor and the rigid wall constraint were modelled using the
rigid material (Mat_20) of LS-DYNA. The Koch fractal tubes of alumi-
ð5Þ num alloy 6061-O were modelled by a piecewise linear elastic plastic
strain hardening material (Mat_24 in LS-DYNA). An automatic node to
surface contact was applied at the interface between impactor and the
tubes to simulate their interaction during crush deformation. To avoid
self-interpenetration of folding during axial collapse, automatic single
surface contact was applied to the external tube surface. The dynamic
and static friction coefficients were set as 0.2 and 0.3, respectively.

EA
SEA ¼ ð6Þ
m

where m is the total mass of the thin-walled structure.

Mean Crushing Force (MCF) is the average value of crushing force
during the whole effective crushing process, which can be obtained by
dividing the total absorbed kinetic energy by the crushing distance d,
described as follows:

EA
MCF ¼ ð7Þ
d

Peak Crushing Force (PCF) is the first peak crushing force. Generally,
during progressive collapse of tube absorbers, the crushing force will
first reach a maximum value and then oscillate around a lower level.
Crush force efficiency (CFE), defined as the ratio of the mean
crushing force to the peak crushing force, is an indicator for the effi-
ciency of an absorber,

MCF
CFE ¼ ð8Þ
PCF

From the load-displacement curves of experimental tests shown in

Fig. 12, the energy absorption and crush characteristics of the 1st
order Koch fractal structures (KF1, C-KF1 and H-KF1) are calculated
and presented in Table 3. It is seen that the C-KF1 tube shows the rela-
tive higher PCF and SEA values than KF1 and H-KF1, while C-KF1 and
H-KF1 show similar crush force efficiency around 0.53–0.58, substan-
tially higher than the basic Koch structure KF1.

Table 3
Experimental results of the 1st Koch tubes with different geometrical dimensions.

Tubes Mass (g) PCF (kN) MCF (kN) CFE EA (kJ) SEA (kJ/kg)

KF1 18.4 11.7 4.0 0.342 0.240 13.043

C-KF1 129.8 64.6 34.3 0.531 2.058 15.855
Fig. 7. Finite element models of Koch fractal structures with mesh size of 2 mm × 2 mm:
H-KF1 120.7 46.2 26.8 0.580 1.608 13.322
(a) KF series; (b) C-KF series; (c) H-KF series.
 J. Wang et al. / Materials and Design 144 (2018) 229–244
Fig. 8. Convergence figure of energy absorption for KF3.
4.2. Validation of FE models
To validate the FE models, their predictions were compared to the
experimental results of 1st order Koch structures (KF1, C-KF1 and H-
KF1). A time scaling factor of 6000 was used to accelerate the numerical
calculation in the present work, therefore, the crash velocity of the rigid
wall in FE models was scaled up to 0.5 m/s. Comparisons of the results
pertinent to the 1st order Koch structures were presented in Figs. 9,
10 and 11, respectively. Fig. 9 presented the deformation comparison
for KF1, showing a very similar collapse mode. Figs. 10(a) and 11
(a) compared the deformation shapes at different crushing displace-
ments (20 mm, 40 mm and 60 mm) for C-KF1 and H-KF1. Both designs
showed stable progressive collapse with fold starting from the bottom
end. Moreover, the predicted deformation shapes at different crushing
displacements were also in good agreement with the experimental re-
sults. Figs. 10(b) and 11(b) provided a comparison of the predicted
Fig. 9. Comparison of experimental and numerical results pertinent to KF1: (a) experimental test; (b) simulation.
235
and measured side views of the two designs, also indicating a good
agreement.
A comparison of the corresponding crush force-displacement curves
of KF1, C-KF1 and H-KF1 was shown in Fig. 12. It was seen that the crush
load fluctuated during the collapse process, with the predicted fluctua-
tion range being in good agreement with the experimental results.
From the above comparisons it can be concluded that the computa-
tional model is able to provide good prediction of the crush behavior of
new thin-walled absorbers inspired by Koch fractal. In the following
section, the model will be used to perform parametric analyses of the
crashworthiness of higher-order Koch fractal absorbers.
5. Parametric study of crashworthiness
Having now validated the computational model against the experi-
mental results of 1st order Koch fractal and its hybrid tubes (KF, C-KF
and H-KF), we will employ the model to investigate the crashworthi-
ness of higher order Koch fractal designs with varying wall thicknesses.
The rate dependency is neglected due to the insensitivity of the alumi-
num alloy to strain rate under low velocity impact.
5.1. Collapse modes
The collapse modes of thin-walled structures determine their stabil-
ity, material utilization and energy absorption efficiency. Therefore, it is
necessary to investigate deformation mechanism and classify the col-
lapse modes for different Koch structures. Extensive numerical analyses
reveal that Koch series structures exhibit four main collapse modes
(Fig. 13). They are described as follows.
• Progressive collapse (P). This is a regular and stable deformation dur-
ing the whole collapse process, as shown in Fig. 13(a). Generally, col-
lapse states at one end of the tube with the generation of the first lobe,
then the other repeat lobes occur at regular stacking spacing.
• Translation collapse (T). In contrast to progressive collapse, this mode
of deformation is irregular and unstable. An example is shown in
Fig. 13(b).
• Progressive-translation collapse (PT). This is a staggered deformation
which usually shows a progressive deformation initially and then
changes to translation collapse, as shown in Fig. 13(c).
236 J. Wang et al. / Materials and Design 144 (2018) 229–244

Fig. 10. Detailed comparison of collapse modes of C-KF1 obtained from experiments and numerical simulations: (a) side views for three different crushing displacements; (b) top and 3D
views.

• Expanding collapse (E). All of the walls fold inward and outward si-
multaneously, as shown in Fig. 13(d). The folding wavelength is
quite large and a good portion of material does not participate into
plastic deformation.
Fig. 14 presents the distribution of collapse modes for different series
of Koch structures. It is recognized that thickness and fractal order have
important influence on the collapse process. Generally, for the same
structure, a progressive collapse mode is the most expected deforma-
tion mode in crushing process, which can take full advantage of the sta-
ble progressive plastic deformation of material to efficiently absorb
energy. Although progressive collapse mode is observed in three series,
only the 0th order tube (KF0) with a wall thickness of 1.2 mm and the
1st order tube (KF1) with a wall thickness of 1 mm exhibit the progres-
sive collapse mode. All of the high order KF tubes (KF2 and KF3) show
the expanding collapse mode with low material utilization of unit
mass. However, the hybrid series (C-KF and H-KF) show more
progressive collapse, and the expanding collapse mode appears only
in the 3rd order structure (C-KF3 and H-KF3). This is due to that the ex-
ternal walls (circular and hexagonal tubes) add connecting constraints
to the corners, thus increasing energy dissipation. Therefore, the stabil-
ities of hybrid designs are increased significantly. Moreover, it is found
from Fig. 14(b) (red line frame) that Koch structures with different frac-
tal orders, for the same wall thickness, usually show the different col-
lapse modes, illustrating that the fractal order has a remarkable effect
on the collapse characteristics of Koch fractal structures.
5.2. Synergistic behavior of hybrid structures
Synergistic behavior between the basic KF structures and external
structures is investigated to understand the energy absorption of hybrid
structures (C-KF and H-KF). To this end, numerical analyses of
standalone KF tubes and standalone external structures (circle and
hexagon) are also performed and the results serve as the basis for com-
parison. The extra energy absorption by synergistic effect is defined as

Fig. 11. Detailed comparison of collapse modes of H-KF1 obtained from experiments and numerical simulations: (a) side views for three different crushing displacements; (b) top and 3D
views.
 J. Wang et al. / Materials and Design 144 (2018) 229–244 237

Fig. 12. Crushing force vs displacement curves of experiments and simulation: (a) KF1; (b) C-KF1; (c) H-KF1.

the difference between the total energy absorption of a hybrid structure
and the anticipated additive energy absorption from two constitutive
structures working separately,
EAsynergy ¼ EAhybrid −ðEAKF þ EAexternal Þ
where EAKF denotes the energy absorption of a standalone KF structure,
EAexternal is the energy absorption of a standalone single wall structure
(circle or hexagon cross section), and EAhybrid is the energy absorption
of the hybrid structure. Therefore, EAsynergy represents the extra (above
the linear sum of two standalone structures) or the synergistic energy
absorption by a hybrid structure.
Fig. 15 presents the energy absorption characteristics of different
order hybrid structures with wall thicknesses 1 mm. Compared with
the sum of energy dissipation by a standalone KF structure and circular
or hexagonal structure, the hybrid structure shows a significant im-
provement in energy absorption, more than the expected sum of the
ð9Þ
two standalone structures. This indicates that synergistic behavior
(illustrated as shaded area) between standalone KF structure and corre-
sponding external structure enhances energy absorption. Furthermore,
the level of synergy of 2nd hybrid is more than that of other order hy-
brids, as seen in Fig. 15(a) to (d) and (e) to (h). In other words, 2nd
order Koch hybrid designs offer the best energy absorption among the
designs considered in this study. Thus, it is believed that fractal order
of structures has remarkable influence on the synergistic behavior of

Fig. 13. Four collapse modes observed from Koch structures: (a) progressive collapse (P); (b) translation collapse (T); (c) progressive-translation collapse (PT); (d) expanding collapse (E).
238 J. Wang et al. / Materials and Design 144 (2018) 229–244
Fig. 14. The distribution of collapse modes with order and thickness: (a) KF tubes; (b) C-KF tubes; (c) H-KF tubes.
hybrid structures. Fig. 16 further reveals the synergistic behavior by the
plastic collapse modes of C-KF2, H-KF2 and corresponding standalone
structures, it is seen that external structures (circle or hexagon cross
section) make standalone KF structures keep the stable plastic collapse
and the standalone KF fractal structure also prompts the external struc-
tures to generate more plastic deformation. This increases the material
utilization of hybrid structures, so the energy absorption of hybrid struc-
tures is higher than the sum of standalone KF and external structure.
Besides, Fig. 15 shows that the external structures have also impor-
tant effect on synergistic behavior. Comparing circular with hexagonal
external structures, although hexagonal (H-KF series) external struc-
tures show the less synergy at 0th order and 1st order, it obtains more
synergistic behavior at 2nd order and 3rd order, especially H-KF2
shows the largest synergistic performance. H-KF2 shown in Fig. 16 pre-
sents more fold lobes and larger material utilization than C-KF2, so that
H-KF2 presents better energy absorption.
To compare all the hybrid structures with different orders and wall
thicknesses, a synergy ratio, Se, can be defined as follow,
EAsynergy
Se ¼  100%
ðEAKF þ EAexternal Þ
a value of zero means no synergy while a value of 1.0 implies that the
hybrid structure absorbs twice the expected energy absorption by the
two standalone structures. Fig. 17 shows the values for two hybrid de-
signs made of various orders of Koch fractal cross-sections and wall
thicknesses. It is immediately clear that the 2nd order hybrid designs
yield the highest synergy ratio among 0th to 3rd order Koch fractal de-
signs. The hexagonal external wall performs better than a circular exter-
nal wall. The synergy ratios for 0th and 1st order hybrid structures with
different thicknesses are reasonably close, which means that the thick-
ness has small influence on synergistic behavior for low order hybrid
structures. However, the synergy ratio varies more strongly with wall
thickness for higher orders (2nd and 3rd) hybrid designs. These results
suggest that wall thickness has a strong effect on the synergistic behav-
ior for high order (2nd and 3rd) hybrid structures.
5.3. Energy absorption and mechanical characteristics
The specific energy absorption (SEA) and peak crushing force (PCF)
are two key indicators for crashworthiness design, and they represent
the energy absorption ability and mechanical characteristics of thin-
walled structures, respectively. Therefore, Fig. 18 presents SEA and PCF
of all three designs with different wall thicknesses and fractal orders.
SEA of the KF series first increases with fractal order, up to order 1,
and then decreases. The 1st order structure (KF1) shows the best spe-
cific energy absorption than the other orders of KF structures. This is at-
ð10Þ
tributed to the effect on collapse modes. Interestingly, the similar trend
of SEA is also found in the C-KF and H-KF series, and the main difference
is that 2nd order structures (C-KF2 and H-KF2) show the highest SEA.
Specifically, SEA of H-KF2 with 0.8 mm thickness reaches the 190% im-
provement over the H-KF0. It exhibits that fractal orders have important
effect on specific energy absorption of the Koch structures. In addition,
the SEA values for low orders (0th and 1st) and high orders (2nd and
 J. Wang et al. / Materials and Design 144 (2018) 229–244 239

Fig. 15. Synergistic effect in hybrid Koch structures: (a) C-KF0; (b) C-KF1; (c) C-KF2; (d) C-KF3; (e) H-KF0; (f) H-KF1; (g) H-KF2; (h) H-KF3.
240 J. Wang et al. / Materials and Design 144 (2018) 229–244

Fig. 16. Crushing deformation for synergistic effect: (a) C-KF2; (b) H-KF2.

3rd) are also summarized in Tables 4 and 5. All of the hybrid structures
(C-KF and H-KF) display a larger SEA than the corresponding KF struc-
tures, the reason is due to synergistic interaction between the external
wall and the inner Koch wall. Furthermore, SEA of the hybrid designs
with the same order shows a gradual increasing trend with increasing
wall thickness, so it indicates than wall thickness has important influ-
ence on SEA of the Koch fractal structures.
It is observed in Fig. 18(d)–(f) that the PCF increases linearly with in-
creasing of the wall thickness for all structures, this is due to that in-
crease in plastic yield load accompanied by thicker walls. For a given
wall thickness, PCF increased with the Koch order, due to that more ma-
terial is introduced because of the longer perimeter of the cross section.
5.4. Comparison of crash performance of Koch and hybrid Koch fractal
structures
To assess the crashworthiness merits of hybrid Koch fractal struc-
tures, numerical simulations are carried out of Koch fractal structures
and hybrid Koch structures with the same mass. The results are
shown in Table 6. It is seen that fractal orders have an obvious effect

Fig. 17. Se of hybrid Koch structures with different wall thickness and order: (a) C-KF tubes; (b) H-KF tubes.
 J. Wang et al. / Materials and Design 144 (2018) 229–244 241

Fig. 18. Effect of wall thickness and order on SEA and PCF: (a) SEA of KF tubes; (b) SEA of C-KF tubes; (c) SEA of H-KF tubes; (d) PCF of KF tubes; (e) PCF of C-KF tubes; (f) PCF of H-KF tubes.

on the SEA for all Koch fractal structures. Firstly, the 1st order Koch
structure (KF1) gives the highest SEA among the 0th to 3rd order Koch
fractal designs. The main reason is that higher order Koch structures
(2nd and 3rd order) experience the less ideal deformation mode for en-
ergy absorption shown in Fig. 14.
For hybrid Koch fractal structures, the 2nd order structures (C-KF2
and H-KF2) produce the best SEA. Furthermore, the high order hybrid
structures (2nd and 3rd) show significant improvement of SEA over
the corresponding Koch structures, due to the synergistic behavior
(Table 6) of hybrid structures that promotes energy absorption. There-
fore, hybrid Koch structures are better than standalone Koch fractal
structures as an energy absorber. Fig. 19 shows a crashworthiness com-
parison of hybrid Koch structures. Comparing with the corresponding
0th order structures, the high order structures have obvious advantage
for energy absorption, in which SEA of C-KF2 and H-KF2 is 65.31% and
137.08% higher than corresponding 0th order structures (C-KF0 and H-

Table 4
SEA of KF, C-KF and H-KF tubes with low orders.

Tubes Thickness 0th order 1st order

(mm)
SEA Improvement over 0th Improvement over 0.8 mm SEA Improvement over 0th Improvement over 0.8 mm
(kJ/kg) order (%) thickness (%) (kJ/kg) order (%) thickness (%)

KF 0.8 7.29 – – 14.59 100.10% –

1.0 9.84 – 34.92% 18.73 90.30% 28.30%
1.2 10.89 – 49.35% 19.76 81.37% 35.37%
1.4 12.23 – 67.65% 20.89 70.82% 43.12%
C-KF 0.8 12.44 – – 18.33 47.36% –
1.0 14.66 – 17.90% 21.16 44.28% 15.43%
1.2 15.92 – 27.98% 23.59 48.20% 28.71%
1.4 18.44 – 48.27% 26.37 43.27% 43.91%
H-KF 0.8 11.40 – – 16.53 44.99% –
1.0 13.48 – 18.23% 18.86 39.95% 14.12%
1.2 15.73 – 38.01% 21.69 37.88% 31.24%
1.4 17.76 – 55.79% 24.45 37.68% 47.93%
242 J. Wang et al. / Materials and Design 144 (2018) 229–244

Table 5
SEA of KF, C-KF and H-KF tubes with high orders.

Tubes Thickness 2nd order 3rd order

(mm)
SEA Improvement over 0th Improvement over 0.8 mm SEA Improvement over 0th Improvement over 0.8 mm
(kJ/kg) order (%) thickness (%) (kJ/kg) order (%) thickness (%)

KF 0.8 10.43 42.94% – 13.43 84.13% –

1.0 12.24 24.40% 17.42% 13.23 34.49% −1.46%
1.2 13.43 23.31% 28.84% 10.91 0.17% −18.75%
1.4 14.10 15.29% 35.22% 12.38 1.21% −7.85%
C-KF 0.8 23.83 91.62% – 21.41 72.17% –
1.0 26.32 79.52% 10.45% 23.26 58.64% 8.63%
1.2 28.11 76.62% 17.96% 24.75 55.48% 15.58%
1.4 30.57 65.78% 28.28% 26.92 45.99% 25.73%
H-KF 0.8 33.03 189.78% – 25.93 127.47% –
1.0 34.46 155.68% 4.32% 27.96 107.42% 7.81%
1.2 36.84 134.16% 11.52% 30.05 90.99% 15.88%
1.4 39.12 120.27% 18.42% 34.37 93.52% 32.54%

KF0). Therefore, the 2nd hybrid Koch structures with a given mass offer
the best crashworthiness. Furthermore, SEA of H-KF2 is 34.17% higher
than C-KF2, and it further indicates that the external wall geometry
has an important effect on crashworthiness.
Fig. 20 further presents a comparison of the crashworthiness of the
2nd hybrid structures (C-KF2 and H-KF2) and typical multi-cell
structures (circular and hexagonal) [12,26–28]. All structures have the
same mass and crushing displacement. Obviously, both C-KF2 and H-
KF2 produce higher energy absorption than multi-cell designs of the
same mass. SEA of H-KF2 improves 74.2% over a hexagonal multi-cell
structure [27], and SEA of C-KF2 is 28% higher than circular multi-cell
structure [12]. Therefore, it draws a conclusion that hybrid Koch fractal

Table 6
Comparison of crash performance of KF, C-KF and H-KF tubes with equal mass.

Models Collapse Strain Mass PCF SEA Se SEA

modes contour (kg) (kN) (kJ/kg) improvement
plots over 0th order

0.215 62.228 18.427 – –

0.215 66.415 21.174 – 14.90%

0.215 68.965 13.620 – −26.10%

0.215 68.609 13.169 – −28.53%

0.215 55.099 14.642 24.34% –

0.215 56.071 19.047 33.01% 30.08%

0.215 56.464 24.205 64.80% 65.31%

0.215 56.167 19.772 73.89% 35.04%

0.215 57.414 13.698 118.8% –

0.215 56.559 17.814 123.6% 30.05%

0.215 61.186 32.474 270.7% 137.1%

0.215 62.105 25.823 271.2% 88.52%

 J. Wang et al. / Materials and Design 144 (2018) 229–244 243

Fig. 19. Comparison of hybrid Koch structures: (a) SEA; (b) PCF.

structures are better energy absorbers than a wide range of circular or
hexagonal multi-cell structures.
5.5. Trigger effect of hybrid Koch structures
Often crash absorbers incorporate notch triggers to control the peak
impact load and the collapse process [29,30]. The main purpose of the
trigger technique is to enable the folding process to start with a lower
yield load and thus prevent the first high crush load. A numerical anal-
ysis is carried out to investigate the crashworthiness of hybrid Koch
structures enhanced by a trigger mechanism. The indentation trigger,
shown in the Fig. 21, is placed on the external wall at a certain distance
from one end, which is approximately the half wavelength of one fold,
and the depth of the trigger is set to 0.3 mm [5]. The crashworthiness re-
sults are presented in Table 7, and structures with indentation trigger
decrease the peak crush load. However, the trigger mechanism has little
negative impact on the specific energy absorption. Therefore, a hybrid
Koch crush absorber can be further enhanced by a trigger mechanism
without degrading the total energy absorption.
6. Conclusion
A new Koch fractal thin-walled structure design has been proposed
to greatly improve the crash characteristics of thin-walled energy ab-
sorbers. Based on the results from the experimental testing and numer-
ical modelling, the following conclusions can be drawn:
(1) Thin-walled structures of Koch fractal cross-sections are found to
offer great potential to improve the crashworthiness, with the
Koch fractal order having a major impact on specific energy ab-
sorption and energy absorption efficiency;
(2) A hybrid design of Koch fractal and external wall creates a signif-
icant synergistic effect that greatly improves the energy absorp-
tion performance of thin-walled structures. This synergistic
effect is attributable to the interaction between Koch fractal and
external wall, and dependent on the Koch fractal order.
(3) The 2nd-order Koch fractal design offers significantly greater en-
ergy absorption than a wide range of multi-cell thin-walled
structures of the same mass, demonstrating the excellent poten-
tial of hybrid Koch fractal structures as crush energy absorbers.

Fig. 20. Comparison between hybrid Koch structures and typical multi-cell structures: (a) SEA; (b) PCF.
244 J. Wang et al. / Materials and Design 144 (2018) 229–244

Fig. 21. Sketch of indentation trigger on Koch hybrid structures: (a) C-KF0 tube; (b) H-KF0 tube.

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