Study on Impact Performance of Energy Absorbing Structures under Horizontal Offset Loading

When a train collision occurs, it is impossible for the vehicle to produce a completely axial collision. To improve the energy absorption performance of the energy-absorbing structure under an eccentric collision, in this paper, the collision performance of a subway vehicle energy absorption structure under a horizontal offset of 0-40 mm is studied via simulation. The results show that the original structure is prone to instability when the horizontal offset is large, so it is necessary to perform an optimization. Based on the concept of gradient material, the honeycomb strength in the structure is changed into a gradient distribution, and the results show that the improved structure did not show any instability phenomenon under all horizontal offsets. Under the horizontal offset of 40 mm, compared with the original structure, the energy absorption increased by 171.88% and the peak force decreased by 1.92% at the same time.