Thin-Walled Structures 136 (2019) 186–199

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

Full length article

Parameter study and multi-objective optimisation of an axisymmetric T

rectangular tube with diaphragms for subways
⁎
Ping Xua,b,c, Kai Xua,b,c, Shuguang Yaoa,b,c, , Chengxing Yanga,d, Qi Huanga,b,c, Hui Zhaoa,b,c,
Jie Xinga,b,c
a
Key Laboratory of Traffic Safety on Track (Central South University), Ministry of Education, Changsha 410075, China
b
Joint International Research Laboratory of Key Technology for Rail Traffic Safety, China
c
National & Local Joint Engineering Research Center of Safety Technology for Rail Vehicle, China
d
School of Mechanical, Aerospace and Civil Engineering, The University of Manchester, Pariser Building, Manchester M13 9PL, UK

A R T I C LE I N FO A B S T R A C T

Keywords: This study proposes a new axisymmetric rectangular tube (ART) with diaphragms. Unlike a uniform thickness
Energy-absorbing structure (EAS) tube (UTT), the thicknesses of adjacent ART walls are defined to be independent, with the thicknesses of the
Axisymmetric rectangular tube (ART) opposite walls remaining identical. The finite element model of ART with diaphragms was developed and va-
Diaphragms lidated by experiments; moreover, we found this structure exhibited acceptable values of crashworthiness in-
Sensitivity analysis
dexes with a controllable and stable collapse pattern. To explore coupling influences of the three types of
Optimisation
thicknesses on crashworthiness indexes and obtain optimal designs, we conducted a design of experiment (DOE)
and employed polynomial response surface method (PRSM) for parameter study and optimisation. It was found
that the ART with diaphragms achieved superior crash performance compared with the UTT with diaphragms,
because of lower peak force and higher specific energy-absorption. When configurations of the ART wall
thickness changed, the sensitivity of the two tube-wall thicknesses on crashworthiness indexes also changed and
diaphragm thickness had different influences on crashworthiness indexes. Moreover, the distribution of design
parameters of the thicknesses of ART was helpful in developing a crashworthiness design strategy. Therefore, we
introduced this ART with diaphragms into crashworthy subways and recommended optimal designs as excellent
energy-absorbing structures in practical engineering.

1. Introduction
The rapid development of subway transportation has led to an in-
crease in the collision accidents of subway vehicles, which inevitably
can cause severe casualties and property losses [1]. Thus, studies on the
crashworthy design of vehicle bodies that aim to improve the safety of
passengers during accidents have become increasingly important. The
primary design method of crashworthiness involves the usage of en-
ergy-absorbing structures (EASs), which gradually can dissipate
crashing kinetic energy, in front of trains [2]. As the most popular form
of EASs, thin-walled (TW) steel tubes are widely applied in this scope
[3,4].
Over the past few decades, a lot of effort has been focused on in-
vestigating the energy-absorption capability of TW steel tubes using
theoretical, numerical, and current experimental methods. Moreover,
TW steel tubes have been applied for all types of situations, such as
axial crushing [5], lateral indentation [6], lateral compression [7], tube
inversion [8], and tube splitting [9]. The most commonly used situation
is axial loading. Abramowicz and Jones [10] conducted a series
of > 120 axial crushing tests for circular and square steel tubes that
were loaded either statically or dynamically. They arrived at certain
approximate theoretical predictions that were developed, which agreed
with the experimental results. Furthermore, they retained the influence
of material strain rate sensitivity for dynamic loads. Guillow et al. [11]
identified the relationship between the dimension features and the
deformation mode for a circular 6060 aluminium tube. They detailed a
collapse mode classification chart with different ratios of diameter to
thickness (D/t) and the ratio of length to thickness (L/t) during axial
crushing. They also established empirical formulas to predict the mean
crush force [12–14]. Moreover, the situation of lateral loading is also
widely studied. Morris et al. [15] investigated both numerically and
experimentally quasi-static lateral compression of nested systems with
vertical and inclined side constraints and found numerical and experi-
mental results were in good agreement. In Ref. [16], Oblong tubes were

⁎
Correspondence to: School of Traffic & Transportation Engineering, Central South University, Changsha 410075, China.
E-mail address: ysgxzx@csu.edu.cn (S. Yao).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tws.2018.12.025
Received 14 October 2018; Received in revised form 10 December 2018; Accepted 19 December 2018
Available online 29 December 2018
0263-8231/ © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
P. Xu et al.
experimentally compressed using three various forms of indenters by
Baroutaji and Morris, and MOD was performed to achieve the optimal
mechanical performance.
When designing TW steel tubes as the EASs for subway vehicles, the
cross-sectional shape of a rectangle or a square is the first consideration
because of the assembly relationship between the EASs and the sub-
way's underframe. Moreover, the rectangular and square EASs are ea-
sier to manufacture with large geometric dimensions. In this scope,
Yang [17] studied the three collapse modes of square tubes that had a
uniform wall thickness under symmetric crushing and extensional
crushing by experiments, and their performance was predicted theo-
retically. In Ref. [18], new patterns were introduced to the surface of
conventional TW square tubes by Zhang and Cheng. The results proved
that two types of patterns could improve the energy-absorption capa-
city under axial compressive loads by changing or generating a new
collapse mode. Arnold and Altenhof [19] performed a quasi-static
compressive testing of aluminium alloy square tubular specimens
whose parameters could result in a predicted global bending collapse
under compressive loads. The results confirmed that tubes with circular
holes slightly degraded the crushing force efficiency compared with
tubes without holes. Furthermore, energy-absorption capabilities were
substantially improved for all specimens containing holes compared
with specimens without holes.
Although the conventional rectangular and square EASs demon-
strated a good performance for energy absorption, at times, they can
meet the limitations, particularly for railway vehicles. Thus, recently,
many researchers have studied the increase in energy-absorption ca-
pacity [20]. Zhang et al. [21] performed quasi-static axial compression
tests for multi-cell columns with different sections and validated the
significant advantage for multi-cell sections over a single cell for en-
ergy-absorption efficiency. Zhang and Ge investigated the crash-
worthiness of multi-cell square structures with various filling patterns,
such as honeycombs and foams [22]. Their results showed that partially
filling the four corner cells with honeycombs yielded the most desirable
crashworthiness performance. Xu et al. designed a gradual energy-ab-
sorbing rectangular nested tube for subways [23], which could divide
the collapse process into two stages and reach the goal of the most
reasonable energy absorption at every stage. Asanjarani and Dibajian
[24] studied the effects of taper angle, as well as number and radius of
indentations on tapered thin-walled square tubes with indentations.
They found that adding indentations was a cheap and efficient way to
improve the behaviour of a square tube against crashes.
In addition to the aforementioned methods for enhancing the
crashworthiness of TW rectangular and square EASs, introducing dia-
phragms to tubes is also an effective method. Gao [25] analysed the
energy-absorption responses of conventional tubes and tubes with
diaphragms. The results showed that tubes with diaphragms exhibited a
relatively stable crushing process. To identify the effects of diaphragms
on composite bitubular structures, Dong performed a numerical study
and concluded that deformation of diaphragms influenced the collision
performance of these structures [26]. The number and location of
diaphragms were simply investigated; moreover, the existence of dia-
phragms in the honeycomb-filled structures was proven to be beneficial
for the collapsing process by Yao et al. [27]. These studies are focused
on the crashworthiness of TW tubes with a uniform wall thickness.
Moreover, the tubes with nonuniform wall thickness configurations
have drawn considerable attention. Sun and Zhang [28] performed
experiments and numerical study of tailor rolled blank (TRB) structures
compared with conventional tubes with uniform thickness (UT). The
results confirmed that TRB structures exhibited superior crashworthi-
ness to UT tubes with more stable deformation during the crushing
process. An et al. [29] proposed a novel TW structure with lateral
graded thickness (FLGT) and found that, under both under axial
crashing and lateral bending, this structure exhibited advantages over
UT structures. Zhang and Zhang [30] investigated the crush resistance
of square tubes with multiple wall thicknesses, and the results of
187
Thin-Walled Structures 136 (2019) 186–199
experiments and simulations indicated variation of wall thickness had a
considerable influence on both deformation mode and force responses
of tubes. Compared with tubes with FGT or FLGT, tubes with various
wall thicknesses were easier to manufacture.
To date, few studies have focused on ART with diaphragms. Thus,
this study focuses on the crashworthiness of ART with diaphragms
under axial quasi-static loads. Using the initial EAS, which is UTT with
diaphragms, we proposed ART with diaphragms such that the thick-
nesses of adjacent walls were defined to be independent and the
thicknesses of the opposite walls remained the same. Then we estab-
lished a finite element model (FEM), which was a powerful tool to
understand the deformation mechanisms and responses of EAS [31]. To
confirm the accuracy of the FEM of ART with initial thickness para-
meters, we performed experiments and found the numerical and ex-
perimental results to be in good agreement. We adopted such indexes as
energy absorption (EA), specific energy absorption (SEA), and initial
peak crushing force (IPCF), which helped to establish the relatively
accurate polynomial response surface models (PRSM) after the design
of experiment (DOE). Parameter study including the local sensitivity
analysis was performed to identify how various thicknesses of tube
walls and diaphragms were related to the three crashworthiness in-
dexes. It was found Crashworthiness indexes were not always sensitive
to one of the two wall thicknesses, which depended on the wall thick-
ness configuration, and diaphragm thickness had different influences on
crashworthiness indexes. We obtained the optimal designs of ART with
diaphragms and UT with diaphragms from a multi-objective optimisa-
tion design (MOD) with the objective functions of SEA and IPCF. Ad-
ditionally, we found that ART could achieve superior crashworthiness
compared with UTT, because of lower IPCF and higher SEA. Certain
design strategies were obtained, which was helpful for practical en-
gineering. The flow chart of this study is shown in Fig. 1.
2. Model details and parameter definition
2.1. Initial structure
As shown in Fig. 2, to gradually dissipate crashing kinetic energy
and transmit crash force flow, rectangular EASs with diaphragms and
UT of tube walls are installed in groups at the front end of the under-
frame in subways. Note that an EAS composed of outer tube walls and
three identical diaphragms is easy to manufacture. The length of the
structure is 272.5 mm, and the cross section is a rectangle of
120mm × 94mm (Fig. 3). The three diaphragms divide the longitudinal
dimension of the structure into four parts, which are not equally spaced.
The distances from the front to the back are 50 mm, 90 mm, 90 mm, and
43 mm. All of the thicknesses of the tube walls and diaphragms are
4 mm.
2.2. Definition of parameters
According to a previous study [30], corner elements consisting of
two plates with different wall thicknesses were found to have a sig-
nificant influence on both the deformation mode and force responses
for the square tubes. Hence, in this study, considering the symmetry of
structural design, we defined two different parameters (i.e., A and B) to
represent the tube-wall thickness of long sides and short sides, respec-
tively, in a rectangular cross section (Fig. 4). When A and B were equal
(Fig. 4(a)), the structure was named as UTT; however, when A and B
were not equal (Fig. 4(b) and (c)), the structure was named as ax-
isymmetric rectangular tube (ART), which we studied in this paper.
Furthermore, because of the addition of diaphragms, we also studied
the thickness of diaphragms, defined as C.
2.3. Evaluation indexes of crashworthiness
When a collision occurs, energy-absorption capacity is the primary
P. Xu et al. Thin-Walled Structures 136 (2019) 186–199

Fig. 1. Flow chart of the research procedure.

requirement for a crashworthy design. A controllable and stable col-
lapse pattern of an EAS is beneficial for maximizing EA. Moreover, an
allowable peak crushing force is designed to avoid excessive accelera-
tion and prevent occupant injuries. Hence, certain structural crash-
worthiness indexes have been employed to assess crashing perfor-
mance. Important indexes, such as EA, IPCF, SEA, and CLE，which are
defined in Eqs. (1) and (2), usually are selected for evaluation.
EA is obtained from force–displacement curves, which can be cal-
culated as follows [32]:
S where M is the total mass of an EAS. A higher SEA value of a structure
EA = ∫0 F (s ) ds, (1)
where F(s) is the instantaneous crushing force and S is the crashing
displacement.
The second index, IPCF, which indicates the maximum value of F(s)
during the initial stage of a collision process [33], is able to determine
an occupant's survival rate.
SEA indicates the EA per unit mass [34], which can be defined as
follows:
EA
SEA = ,
M (2)
indicates greater efficiency in EA during a collision. This is also

Fig. 2. EASs installed in groups at the front end of the underframe in a certain subway.

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P. Xu et al.
Fig. 3. Detailed internal EAS with geometric dimensions.
beneficial for a lightweight design; therefore, it is a significant goal of
design and optimisation in this study.
Also crush load efficiency (CLE) is the ratio between mean crush
force (MCF) and peak force and is an important characteristic to eval-
uate the stability of crushing process [35], which can be defined as
follows:
MCF EA 1
CLE = = ,
IPCF IPCF S
where S is a constant in this study, so this index is determined by EA
and IPCF completely.
3. Numerical simulations and experiments
3.1. Numerical model
In this study, we established a numerical model including ART with
diaphragms, using an explicit nonlinear finite element analysis code LS-
DYNA. Moreover, ART with diaphragms was the same as that for the
initial structure in terms of geometric parameters. As shown in
Fig. 5(a), an FEM includes the following components: an EAS, two thick
plates, a press indenter, which can easily simulate experimental con-
ditions. From Fig. 5(b), an EAS is composed of tube walls and dia-
phragms. The EAS is connected with two thick plates, and one of thick
plates is fixed. A press indenter moves forward with a velocity of
1000 mm/s [23]. Moreover, EAS and two thick plates are modelled
using four-node shell elements having two integration points through
the thickness and one integration point in the element plane. This helps
define the Belytschko–Tsay shell element formulation. However, the
press indenter is selected to be modelled using the hexahedral solid
elements because it is relatively thick and rigid. To balance computa-
tion time and computation accuracy, we performed mesh convergence
analysis by reducing the element size of EAS and two thick plates of
14–3 mm. As shown in Fig. 6, it is found that the EA-element size curve
Fig. 4. Different configurations of cross sections with different tube-wall thicknesses.
Thin-Walled Structures 136 (2019) 186–199
was stable when the element size was 4 mm; therefore, 4 mm was se-
lected as the element size. Furthermore, the element size of the other
parts was 10 mm, which could satisfy the requirements of accuracy and
time.
For the FEM, we employed two types of contact algorithms. We
applied the “AUTOMATIC_SURFACE_TO_SURFACE” in LS-DYNA for
contact between the press indenter and thick plate. We also used the
contact algorithm “AUTOMATIC_SINGLE_SURFACE” for the EAS and
two thick plates. Note that the static coefficient of friction was defined
as 0.3, whereas the dynamic coefficient of friction was defined as 0.2
[36]. For this FEM, the press indenter was defined to move towards the
specimen slowly, and the back thick plate was fixed.
Furthermore, MAT#24 property is used from the material library in
LS-DYNA to define the material according to the data from tensile tests.
Because the simulation was quasi-static, the strain rate effect is ignored
in this study.
3.2. Material properties
To investigate the material characteristics, quasi-static tensile tests
were performed. During these tests, three specimens that were cut from
tube walls with standard dimensions were stretched using a MTS 647
hydraulic wedge grip tensile test machine, and the rate was 20 mm/
min. Fig. 7 shows the true stress–plastic strain curve obtained from the
original data of the tensile test. The material properties of the steel
(3)
structure are listed in Table 1.
3.3. Experimental details
We conducted quasi-static compression tests for the initial structure,
as shown in Fig. 8. EAS was placed between the press indenter and the
fixture fixed on the rigid wall. Using the hydraulic loading indenter, a
stable and slow compression velocity of 20 mm/min was provided. The
load cell was attached to the hydraulic indenter to record the crushing
force. We also obtained the historical displacement data using a dis-
placement meter. For this test, the displacement for the specimen was
set as 200 mm, which represented ~70% of the complete longitudinal
length of the specimen.
3.4. Discussion of the results and validation of FEM
To analyse the crashing performance of ART with diaphragms and
validate the accuracy of FEM, discussions of force–displacement curve,
energy absorption and deformation mode [37] between the simulation
and experiment are briefly described as following.
Fig. 9 shows the comparison of force–displacement and en-
ergy–displacement curves between the simulation and experiment. It is
clearly seen that two sets of curves of numerical simulation correlate
well with that of experiment. Table 2 lists the IPCF obtained from the
simulation and experiment as 697.872 kN and 702.822 kN, as well as
EA as 75.80 kJ and 78.15 kJ, respectively. In detail, there were minor
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Fig. 5. The finite element model: (a) The general model; (b) The detailed internal model.

differences between two sets of curves. When the displacement was

~25 mm, the force value of the experiment decreased quickly; when the
displacement was ~50 mm, the force of experiment was about 60 kN
lower than that of numerical simulation. The similar differences oc-
curred in the following phases. In the end, the force of experiment in-
creased quicker than that of numerical simulation. The primary reason
was that tears of welds appeared only in the experiment (Fig. 10). This
behaviour weakened the strength of this structure and advanced the
compaction. Moreover, the complexities of the experiment conditions
contributed to the incomplete consistency of these curves. However,
these differences did not affect general consistency of force and energy
absorption.
Furthermore, the prediction of deformation model was also a part of
this validation. As shown in Fig. 10, the deformation processes in the
simulation and the experiment reached a good agreement. The first fold
was generated between the first diaphragms and the second diaphragms
with the symmetric crushing mode, which occurred both in the simu-
Fig. 6. The curve obtained from mesh convergence analysis.
lation and experiment. Then the second fold and the third fold with the
symmetric crushing mode appeared in the third tube space and the first
tube space, respectively. The deformation mode and sequence main-
tained the same in the simulation and experiment. However, tears of
welds which were circled by red lines (Fig. 10) appeared when the folds
were generated in the experiment. It did not affect the general de-
formation process. Thus, reasonable agreements in the three aspects
indicated that the FEM of ART was sufficiently validated and could be
used in further studies.
On the other hand, in terms of other crashworthiness indexes, such
as SEA and CLE, numerical results also agree well with experimental
results. The two acceptable indexes of numerical simulation are
16.68 kJ/kg and 0.54, which indicates this structure has an almost ideal
response under axial compression, and Fig. 10 also shows the de-
formation model is regular and stable.

4. Surrogate model and parameter study

Fig. 7. True stress–strain curve of the material used in the EAS.
4.1. Design of experiment
Table 1
Material performance parameters. To analyse the crashworthiness of newly defined EAS and obtain the
optimal structural parameters, we adopted the surrogate model method
Mechanical parameters Values
in this study. Before establishing this model, we performed DOE with
3
Density (kg/m ) 7850 the FEMs to offer limited experiments at the sampling design points or
Young's modulus (GPa) 206 training points.
Poisson's ratio 0.3 DOE offers a set of methods to construct the sampling points such as
Yield stress (MPa) 335
Tangent modulus (GPa) 1330
factorial, Box–Behnken design (BBD) [38], central-composite design
(CCD), fractional factorial design (FFD) [39], optimal Latin hypercube
sampling (OLHS) [40], and Taguchi or orthogonal arrays (OA) [41].
According to Li et al. [42], OLHS design is used extensively and has
proved to be an effective method for structural design optimisation;
therefore, we adopted this design. Furthermore, three design variables

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P. Xu et al. Thin-Walled Structures 136 (2019) 186–199

Fig. 8. The corresponding quasi-static experimental condition.

based on a polynomial function from DOE [47]. In such a design space,

the response functions of design variables can be approximately defined
as follows [46]:
N
Y (x ) = yˆ (x ) + ε = ∑ ai φi (x ) + ε,
i=1 (4)

where yˆ (x ) , ε, N, and ai refer to approximate objective functions, error

between approximate values and actual values, number of items in the
basis function φi (x ) , and an undetermined coefficient, respectively.
For a quadratic model, φi (x ) can be expressed as follows:

1, x1, x2 , ... x n , x12 , x1 x2 , ... ,x1 x n , ... ,x n2 . (5)

For a cubic model, φi (x ) can be expressed as follows:

1, x1, x2 , ... x n , x12 , x1 x2 , ... ,x1 x n , ... ,x n2 , x13 , x12 x2 , ... ,x12 x n , x1 x 22 , ... ,x1 x n2 , ...
x n3 . (6)
Fig. 9. Force and energy responses compared between numerical simulation
and experiment.
For a quartic model, φi (x ) can be expressed as follows:

Table 2
Comparison of numerical and experimental results.
IPCF (kN) EA (kJ)
Numerical results 697.87 75.80
Experimental results 702.82 78.15
Error 0.70% 3.00%
(i.e., A, B, and C) are defined as thicknesses of tube walls and dia-
phragms, respectively, in range of 2–6 mm, which covers the typical
range of thickness sizes commonly used for crashworthiness applica-
tions. Fig. 11 shows the detailed sampling points (25) obtained using
OLHS design. To describe and investigate the crashworthiness of this
structure, we calculated responses of EA, SEA, IPCF and CLE, using the
newly established FEMs.
4.2. Polynomial response surface models setting up
Common methods for constructing surrogate models include radial
basis function, polynomial response surface method (PRSM), support
vector regression [43], artificial neural network [44], and kriging [45]
models. PRSM has been proven to be particularly effective and ex-
tensively used in the design for thickness [46]. Moreover, it is a fitting
method based on mathematical statistics and least squares method
1, x1, x2 , ... x n , x12 , x1 x2 , ... ,x1 x n , ... ,x n2 , x13 , x12 x2 , ... ,x12 x n , x1 x 22 , ... ,x1 x n2 , ...
x n3 x14 . x13 x2 , ... ,x13 x n , x12 x 22 , ... x12 x n2 , ... x1 x 23 , ... x1 x n3 , ... x n4 . . (7)
To compare and obtain a more accurate PRS model, we derived
three types of polynomial functions (quadratic, cubic, and quartic) of
EA, SEA, and IPCF versus thickness parameters (i.e., A, B, and C), all of
which were from 2 to 6 mm (Appendix A). It is necessary to perform the
error estimation of surrogate models using numerical indexes. Hence,
we used additional 20 validation points that were randomly generated
(Fig. 11). Moreover, we used three common numerical indexes—that is,
average relative error (ARE), maximum relative error (MRE), and
coefficient of determination (R2)—which are shown in Eqs. (7)–(9),
respectively, to validate the accuracy of these surrogate models.
∑
yˆi − yi
yi
ARE = × 100%,
n (8)
yˆi − yi
MRE = Max ⎛⎜ × 100%⎞⎟, and
⎝ yi ⎠ (9)
∑ (yˆi − yi )2
R2 = 1 − ,
∑ (yˆi − y¯i )2 (10)
where n = 20 is the number of newly created validation points, yi and ȳi
are every true FEM value and the mean values for all the FEM values on
the validation points, and ŷi is every corresponding approximate

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P. Xu et al. Thin-Walled Structures 136 (2019) 186–199

Fig. 10. Deformation processes compared between numerical simulation and experiment.

Fig. 11. Sampling points and validation points from OLHS design.

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P. Xu et al. Thin-Walled Structures 136 (2019) 186–199

Table 3 compared with the other two models, except for the MRE of cubic
Detailed results of validation with error indexes. function to predict EA. In general, this comparison indicated that the
Response Index Quadratic Cubic Quartic cubic function could provide more accurate results for predicting EA,
SEA, and IPCF. Thus, we selected the cubic function as the surrogate
EA ARE (%) 5.5839 5.2260 6.2223 model, which we applied for the next parameter study and optimisa-
MRE (%) 12.1332 13.0202 14.0384
tion.
R2 0.9794 0.9782 0.9749
SEA ARE (%) 5.2759 5.2069 5.6166
MRE (%) 12.3093 12.1657 13.0942
4.4. Study of design parameter
R2 0.9416 0.9402 0.9332
IPCF ARE (%) 2.6762 2.5571 1.9784
MRE (%) 9.9229 7.2562 5.3609 In this section, we studied design parameters to identify the effects
R2 0.9924 0.9927 0.9952 of various thicknesses of tube walls and diaphragms for crashworthiness
indexes.

predicted value. Note that the values of these performance metrics

show the prediction accuracy and capability of these surrogate models
at validation points. ARE and R2 metrics indicate the overall accuracy of
an approximation model, whereas MRE is a local metric. Overall,
smaller values of ARE and MRE, and a closer value to 1 of R2, indicate
an improved accuracy of the model.
4.3. Validation and comparison of PRS models
To explicitly compare the performance of these surrogate models,
Table 3 and Fig. 12 show the accuracy of the validation results of these
three models. In general, all three models had an acceptable accuracy
and showed similar results. They all had the best accuracy on IPCF in
three responses. In particular, three metrics of quartic function pre-
dicting IPCF demonstrated that this model performed best for approx-
imating IPCF. All of the R2 metrics were quite close to 1, and only the
MRE of quadratic functions predicting EA was the smallest. However,
ARE and MRE of cubic function for predicting EA and SEA were smaller
4.4.1. Effect of thicknesses on EA response
As shown in Fig. 13(a), only one variable changed from 2 to 6 mm,
whereas the other two variables were set with an initial thickness of
4 mm for every curve. Moreover, the slopes of the curves indicated the
effect of input parameters on the output responses, the larger the slopes,
the greater the effects. Parameters A and B with large slopes had sig-
nificant and positive effects on EA, particularly on parameter A. Inter-
estingly, the curve of C was not monotonous. EA increased with para-
meter C first, and then EA levelled off and even decreased slightly with
increase in C after crossing the vertex. Moreover, the general effect of
parameter C was not as great as parameter A and B because the con-
straint effect of diaphragms grew stronger when C increased from
2 mm, which was helpful for regular deformation and would lead to an
increase in EA. However, when C came to the point at which the dia-
phragm thickness was large enough to restrain the formation of folds,
the thicker diaphragms were not beneficial for EA because of the lim-
ited space for deformation.
Fig. 13(b) shows three three-dimensional (3D) contours of EA with

Fig. 12. Comparison of three models with error indexes.

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P. Xu et al.
Fig. 13. Effect of thicknesses on EA response: (a) Effect of a single variable thickness on EA; (b) 3D contours of EA with parameters B and C.
parameters B and C when A was set as 2, 4, and 6 mm. In addition to the
previously noted laws, we found that if A and B were larger, an increase
in C had a more positive effect on EA, which indicated that more energy
could be absorbed.
4.4.2. Effect of thicknesses on SEA response
Fig. 14(a) shows the effect of thickness on SEA. Note that the gen-
eral curves of A and B were similar to the corresponding curves in EA
analysis. This performance indicated that SEA would increase if A and B
were larger, and the effects were more obvious. Furthermore, the slope
of parameter C increased slightly at first and then obviously decreased,
which suggested that when diaphragms got thicker, the mass of dia-
phragms was more sensitive to variation compared with EA. Moreover,
if we compared A and B, SEA was less sensitive to C.
As shown in Fig. 14(b), when A and B were smaller, C had a ne-
gative effect on SEA. However, an increase of C would lead to an in-
crease of SEA if A and B were larger. Hence, when tube walls were
thicker, thicker diaphragms were helpful for efficiency of EA.
4.4.3. Effect of thicknesses on IPCF response
Positive slopes with large gradients of A and B indicated that IPCF
would increase when A and B were greater (Fig. 15(a)), and it was fairly
sensitive to A and B. However, C had little influence on IPCF; moreover,
the 3D contours of IPCF in Fig. 15(b) suggested that IPCF primarily was
influenced by A and B. Thus, when designing EASs, high IPCF leading to
high decelerations should be avoided; therefore, a very large A and B at
the same time should not be applied.
4.4.4. Local sensitivity analysis
The sensitivity analysis was intended to investigate how any
Fig. 14. Effect of thicknesses on SEA response: (a) Effect of a single variable thickness on SEA; (b) 3D contours of SEA with parameters B and C.
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Thin-Walled Structures 136 (2019) 186–199
uncertainty in system output might be related to different sources of
uncertainty in inputs [48]. We generally consider relative local sensi-
tivity, which is defined as S, in the form of
∂Y / Y ∂Y Xi,0
S= = .
∂Xi / Xi,0 ∂Xi Y (11)
Relative local sensitivity is a function involving partial derivatives
and relativity calculations, where Y is output response based on sur-
rogate models and Xi is mean input variables.
In this study, EA, SEA, and IPCF were the outputs. Because of the
relative less effect of parameter C on crashworthiness indexes, we se-
lected A and B as input variables that should be investigated, and C was
set to a constant of 4 mm.
Fig. 16 shows relative local sensitivity results of EA, SEA, and IPCF
with respect to A and B. From three 3D contours, in the design domains,
it can be seen that the surfaces representative of sensitivities of EA, SEA,
and IPCF with respect to A were above the surfaces representative of
corresponding sensitivities with respect to B. This indicated that three
responses were more sensitive to A compared with B and that the
variation of A could lead to additional fluctuations in the three re-
sponses for a majority of the design domains.
However, for every 3D contour, there were a few regions where
surface responses with respect to A remained below another surface. In
the first two 3D contours, these points were located in regions where A
was smaller than ~3 mm, and the two situations of EA and SEA were
similar. In the last 3D contour, when A was smaller than 3 mm and B
was larger than ~3.5 mm in the design domain, the situation met the
abovementioned description. Furthermore, the points located on in-
tersection curves of two sensitivity surfaces in every 3D contour re-
presented the sensitivities of responses with respect to A and B being
P. Xu et al.
Fig. 15. Effect of thicknesses on IPCF response: (a) Effect of a single variable thickness on IPCF; (b) 3D contours of IPCF with parameters B and C.
equal.
Overall, the tube walls with thickness of A have a larger area to form
folds and absorb energy, and three crashworthiness indexes were al-
ways more sensitive to A compared with B for a majority of the design
domains. However, there were situations in which local sensitivities
with respect to A and B were equal, even in the reverse form. Thus, this
should be considered when designing and optimising the thicknesses of
tube walls.
5. Optimisation
5.1. Description of optimisation problem
EASs should dissipate the maximum possible amount of energy per
unit mass; therefore, we selected the maximum SEA in the design do-
main as the first objective function [49]. However, the crushing of EASs
during a crash scenario should not lead to high decelerations to avoid
severe injuries or deaths. This aim can be achieved by maintaining as
low a peak crushing force as possible; thus, we selected the minimum
IPCF as another objective function. Moreover, to ensure that enough
energy will be absorbed, we set EA as a significant constraint at a
minimum limit of 70 kJ, which depended on the design strategy of the
energy-absorption distribution for subway vehicles. Furthermore, three
design parameters (i.e., A, B, and C), all changed from 2 to 6 mm in the
multi-objective optimisation design (MOD).
Consequently, the multi-objective optimisation problem can be
formulated mathematically as follows:
Paradoxical /ˌper.əˈdɑːk.sɪ.kəl/(a) ngược đời, nghịch lý
⎧ Minimize − SEA
⎪ Minimize IPCF
⎪ s. t . EA (A, B, C ) ≥ 70kJ
. ideal optimums, which indicated that a single objective (SEA or IPCF)
⎨ 2mm ≤ A ≤ 6mm
⎪ 2mm ≤ B ≤ 6mm
⎪ tions and crashworthiness indexes (SEA and IPCF) obtained from PRSM.
⎩ 2mm ≤ C ≤ 6mm
5.2. Optimisation algorithm
To identify the optimal results based on accurate surrogate models,
we can use certain optimisation algorithms. Particle swarm optimisa-
tion (PSO) algorithm is a population-based search procedure in which
individuals (called particles) continuously change position (called state)
to look for the best position in the design space [50]. As an extended
version to PSO, multi-objective particle swarm optimisation (MOPSO)
algorithm is characterized by a fast convergence and well-distributed
Pareto frontier compared with other algorithms, such as multi-objective
genetic algorithm and the non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm
approaches [46]. This algorithm has recently drawn considerable at-
tention and been successfully employed to solve the MOD of
Thin-Walled Structures 136 (2019) 186–199
crashworthiness. Hence, we introduced the MOPSO algorithm to solve
the optimisation problem; moreover, we obtained the Pareto frontier of
the two conflicting objective functions of SEA and IPCF. The Pareto
frontier is a set of non-dominated optimal solutions involving design
parameters and crashworthiness indexes, and then certain decisions can
be made according to actual demand. Table 4 lists details of the para-
meter's definitions for the MOPSO algorithm [48].
5.3. Results and discussion
To validate the results of Pareto points, we selected five sets of so-
lutions (Table 5) to be simulated with FEMs and compared the solutions
to predicted results from the MOD. The comparison showed that the
maximum relative error was 7.62%. Moreover, all of the predicted re-
sults agreed well with the numerical results, which indicated that re-
sults from MOD were reasonable.
As shown in Fig. 17, to demonstrate the Pareto frontier obtained
from MOD, two objective functions (i.e., SEA and IPCF) are arranged to
the X and Y coordinates, respectively. Moreover, we conducted another
MOD, which was the UTT with diaphragms. This MOD, which indicated
only two variables having uniform wall thickness (A) and diaphragm
thickness (C), were correspondingly defined, and the details of the MOD
are listed in Appendix B. Furthermore, in this comparison, we added
two results of MOD for ART with diaphragms and UTT with dia-
phragms. We found from the two curves that an increase in SEA would
lead to an increase of IPCF, and a decrease of IPCF would cause a de-
crease of SEA. This performance indicated that the design expectations
of high SEA and low IPCF were paradoxical; moreover, how to select a
suitable design depended on the actual demand. For such an analysis,
we selected points lying at the ends of each Pareto curve (Fig. 17) as
was pursued [51]. Table 6 compares the optimal structure configura-
(12)
The ideal Max SEA of ART was 25.89 kJ/kg, which was higher than that
of UTT (24.77 kJ/kg). The ideal Min IPCF of ART was 653.98 kN, which
was lower than that of UTT (663.49 kN).
In Fig. 17, the Pareto curve of ART was always to the left of another
curve, which indicated that if two EASs reached the same objective,
another objective of ART was superior. For instance, when SEA was set
as 20 kJ/kg, IPCF of ART and UTT were 866.30 kN and 914.65 kN,
respectively. In fact, the latter was higher than the former by ~5.58%.
When IPCF was set as 1000 kN, SEA of ART and UTT were 22.70 kJ/kg
and 21.48 kJ/kg, respectively, and the former was higher than the latter
by ~5.68%. Therefore, it could be concluded that ART with diaphragms
could achieve superior crashworthiness compared with UTT with dia-
phragms.
In terms of the stability of deformation (i.e., CLE) of ART with
diaphragms, we calculated values of all the points from DOE and found
195
P. Xu et al.
Fig. 16. Local sensitivity analysis with A and B: (a) EA; (b) SEA; (c) IPCF.
the lowest CLE was 0.38 when A = 2.84 mm, B = 2 mm, and
C = 3.89 mm. This structure still exhibited a regular and stable de-
formation process. For MOD of ART with diaphragms, the objectives
were maximum SEA and minimum IPCF, and EA was set as the limit,
which was beneficial for a higher CLE, according to Eq. (3). Thus, the
MOD was also helpful to obtain designs which have regular and stable
deformation process. For instance, five sets of solutions (Table 5) were
also selected to discuss the CLE values. The numerical results of five
points were 0.63, 0.64, 0.57, 0.53 and 0.54, and the aforementioned
CLE value of initial design was 0.54; moreover, all of the five designs
had regular and stable deformation process. In general, ART with
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Thin-Walled Structures 136 (2019) 186–199
diaphragms in the design domain could generate regular and stable
deformation and achieve reasonable CLE values, particularly for the
structures from MOD.
For the Pareto frontier of ART with diaphragms, optimal design
parameters of A, B, and C demonstrated different variation, as shown in
the 3D scatter (Fig. 18). Note that A varied from 6 mm to 2.5 mm, and
the range was relatively wide. However, the range of B was from ap-
proximately 6 mm to 4 mm, which was narrower than that of A.
Therefore, we concluded that a variation of A imposed additional in-
fluence to objective functions in the MOD compared with B, which was
consistent with results of the parameter study. Moreover, C varied only
P. Xu et al. Thin-Walled Structures 136 (2019) 186–199

Table 4 increased slightly. Thus, for the whole Pareto frontier, Parameter C
Details of the parameters definition for the MOPSO algo- increased first and then decreased with the objectives of SEA and IPCF
rithm. going down.
Parameters Valve In previous studies, Gao et al. [25] investigated both the UTT with
diaphragms and found that the addition of diaphragms could improve
Maximum iterations 100 the stability of square tubes. In this study, parametric researches of ART
Number of particles 100
with diaphragms indicated the detailed rules of variables and re-
Inertia 0.8
Global increment 0.5 sponses. Zhang et al. [30] found different configurations of tube walls
Particle increment 0.9 had great influence on both deformation mode and force responses of
Maximum velocity 0.1 square tubes and these results were qualitative. The same conclusions
Max failed runs 5
were also drawn in this study, and the addition of diaphragms for ART
Failed run penalty value 1.0E30
Failed run objective value 1.0E30
was firstly investigated by employing an OLHS design method and
PRSM. Moreover, it was proved that ART with diaphragms could
achieve superior crashworthiness compared with UTT with diaphragms
Table 5 in MOD.
Selection of validation points and validation.
Parameters and Point 1 Point 2 Point 3 Point 4 Point 5
objectives
6. Conclusions

A (mm) 6 6 4.83 3.52 2.59 In this study, we proposed and examined a newly ART with dia-
B (mm) 6 4.63 5.14 5.90 5.59 phragms under axial quasi-static loads by experiments and numerical
C (mm) 3.25 4.21 2.74 2.00 2.65
simulation. Unlike previous studies, by employing an OLHS design
SEA (kJ/kg) Predicted 25.89 23.72 21.01 18.85 16.80
Numerical 24.06 23.12 20.03 17.77 16.41 method and PRSM, this study primarily focused on the coupling effects
Error (%) 7.62 2.59 4.91 6.05 2.37 of two types of wall thicknesses as well as diaphragms thickness of this
IPCF (kN) Predicted 1176.17 1047.16 916.70 786.91 653.98 EAS on the energy-absorption responses. To obtain the optimal designs
Numerical 1177.23 1056.23 910.62 769.78 628.88
of this structure, we performed MOD with the variables A, B, and C as
Error (%) 0.09 0.86 0.67 2.22 3.99
well as objective functions of SEA and IPCF using the MOPSO algo-
rithm. The primary conclusions of parameter analysis and optimisation
study for design purposes are summarised as follows:

• ART and UTT with diaphragms were reasonable EASs that could
generate a controllable and stable collapse pattern and had accep-
table values of crashworthiness indexes.
• The crashworthiness indexes of EA, SEA, and IPCF increased as
thicknesses of tube walls (A and B) increased. An increase in
thickness of diaphragms (C) was not always positive and monotonic
towards the three responses.
• The three crashworthiness indexes generally were more sensitive to
tube-wall thickness of long sides (A) compared with that of short
sides (B) in a rectangular section. However, such situations re-
mained in which local sensitivities with respect to A and B were
equal as well as in the reverse form.
• For MOD of ART and UTT with diaphragms, it can be concluded that
an increase in SEA always led to an increase in IPCF, and a decrease
in IPCF caused a decrease in SEA.
Fig. 17. Pareto frontiers from EASs with AITAW and UT.

Table 6
• Bases on MOD, ART with diaphragms achieved better crashworthi-
ness compared with UTT with diaphragms. The optimal thicknesses
Ideal optimums of the two single objective functions for the EASs with AITAW of adjacent tube walls (A and B) were not always identical, and the
and UT. variation trends were different.
Type Single objective A (mm) B (mm) C (mm) SEA (kJ/kg) IPCF (kN)
In sum, this study firstly investigated ART with diaphragms by nu-
ART Ideal Max SEA 6.00 6.00 3.25 25.89 1176.17 merical simulations and experiments. Parameter study and MOD were
Ideal Min IPCF 2.59 5.90 2.65 16.80 653.98
UTT Ideal Max SEA 6.00 5.47 24.77 1168.38
performed; ART with diaphragms was proved to have superior crash
Ideal Min IPCF 3.84 6.00 14.47 663.49 performance compared with the previous structure and certain design
strategies were obtained.

from 4.6 mm to 2 mm, and the values generally were relatively small.
This suggested that very thick diaphragms were not beneficial for the
objective functions of MOD in this study. In addition to the performance
of a general range, the trends of optimal design parameters are inter-
esting. When SEA was > 22.5 kJ/kg and IPCF was > 1000 kN, para-
meter A maintained 6 mm generally, but the variation of B was sharp.
When the range of objectives was opposite, Parameter A began to
change sharply. Moreover, if objectives of SEA and IPCF decreased, the
results of A from MOD would obviously decrease; however, B generally
Acknowledgements
This work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation
of China, China (Nos. 51675537, U1334208) and the National Key
Research and Development Program of China, China (No.
2016YFB1200505-016). The financial support is gratefully acknowl-
edged. We thank LetPub (www.letpub.com) for its linguistic assistance
during the preparation of this manuscript.

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P. Xu et al. Thin-Walled Structures 136 (2019) 186–199

Fig. 18. Distribution of Pareto points of ART.

Appendix A

The EA, SEA, IPCF functions obtained from cubic polynomial response surface method are defined as follows:
EA = − 0.52651 − 6.00621A + 18.56929C − 7.89895B − 0.36693A2
− 4.80199C 2 + 4.12990B2 + 1.82752AC + 2.27613AB − 0.56120CB
+ 0.25677A3 + 0.31403C 3 − 0.33839B3, (A.1)

SEA = 6.65508 − 2.21668A + 2.62896C − 0.64569B + 0.55580A2

− 0.79840C 2 + 0.86797B2 + 0.31994AC + 0.07783AB − 0.15720CB
− 0.02340A3 + 0.05090C 3 − 0.08159B3, (A.2)

IPCF = − 339.88531 + 119.14272A + 174.78728C + 40.77195B

− 1.65154A2 − 44.16992C 2 + 15.26210B2 + 1.22423AC + 0.25685AB
− 1.80188CB + 0.55490A3 + 3.57487C 3 − 1.27542B3. (A.3)

Appendix B

⎧ Minimize − SEA
⎪ Minimize IPCF
⎪
s. t . EA (A, C ) ≥ 70kJ .
⎨
⎪ 2mm ≤ A ≤ 6mm
⎪ 2mm ≤ C ≤ 6mm (B.1)
⎩

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