Industrial Consultancy & Sponsored Research (IC&SR) , IIT Madras

A System and Method for Bionic Impact Absorption Device

Technology Category/Market

Category – Mechnical Engineering, Automotives

Applications – Automotive energy absorption pads, Aerospace, Additive manufacturing, 3D printing.

Market – Automotive energy absorption (EA) pads market will reach USD 2,085.72 million by 2028 and grow at a CAGR of 4.30% during 2021 to 2028.

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Problem Statement

  • According to the WHO 2022 report on world traffic injuries, 1.3 million fatalities and 39 million injuries occur globally.
  • In automobile crash zones, impact absorbers are placed between the bumper and side rails of the vehicles, which are widely used to absorb kinetic energy through plastic deformation.
  • However, the design of the impact absorber determines the crashworthiness of the vehicle structure.
  • In general, automotive industries mainly aim to reduce vehicle weight to meet the safety standards set by Federal Motor Vehicle Safety standards.
  • For low-cost and high strength-to-weight ratios, aluminum, steel and fiber-reinforced composites have been mostly used in the fabrication of crash-boxes.
  • Currently, existing systems have tried to address this problem. However, their scope was limited to the use of micro-lattices, and glass sponge to derived tubular structures for lightweight applications.

Technology

  • The present invention discloses a system and method for a bionic impact absorption device (as shown in Fig. 1).

System

  1. The system comprises comprising at least one bionic tube (102) for absorbing high impact energy.
  2. The bionic tube (102) comprises at least two relatively closed cell and at least two relatively open cell, forming at least one-unit cell (104).
  3. The one-unit cell (as shown in Fig.2 & 3) comprises at least one horizontal strut (110) for providing strength, one diagonal strut (112) for providing buckling resistance, and at least two vertical strut (114) for providing strength.

Key Features/Value Proposition

  1. The advantages are one bionic tube is retrofitted to the bionic impact absorption devices.
  2. Improved energy absorption as compared to conventional bionic impact absorption devices.
  3. The device is possible to control the energy absorption by changing the at least one-unit cell parameters without changing the weight and overall dimensions.
  4. Device is light weight and uses less material consumption.
  5. An additional advantage is to lower the cost of impact absorbing devices, as well as to ensure their design complicity.
Questions about this Technology?

Contact for Licensing

Research Lab

Prof. Somashekhar S. Hiremath,

Department of Mechanical Engineering

Intellectual Property

  • IITM IDF Ref. 2400
  • IN 431156 – Patent Granted

Technology Readiness Level

TRL – 2

Technology concept formulated.

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