Recently, aluminum use for automobile is growing steadily to reduce fuel consumption. For example, aluminum alloy extruded shapes are used for energy absorbing structure, such as Mercedes Benz E class. To maintain the safety requirement, aluminum alloy extruded shapes must have good energy absorbing characteristics. In this paper, the relationship between cross section factor and energy absorbing characteristics have been investigated by using a finite element analysis and experiment. In the results of analysis and experiment, the deformation mode changed depend on thickness of shapes. Therefore, the energy absorbing characteristics were greatly influenced by cross section factor of shapes.
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