Crashworthiness analysis of bumper structures with bionic hexagonal energy-absorbing boxes inspired by the characteristic of horsetails

Inspired by the cross-sectional structure and transverse diaphragm of horsetail stem, six types of bionic bumper structures are designed and their crashworthiness performances are investigated by numerical simulation and compared with conventional bumper structure. Results show that all types of the bionic bumper structure present excellent crashworthiness performances. Their specific energy absorption (SEA) increases more than 80% compared to original bumper structure, indicating the effectiveness of bionic design. The maximum increment in SEA under the frontal collision, the 30 degrees inclined collision and the 40% offset collision reaches 135.32%, 96.55%, and 118.85%, respectively.