Crash box is a vital component for a vehicle in absorbing kinetic energy in the event of a road collision. The thin-walled structure is emerging as a favorable geometry in designing the crash box. This article investigates the energy absorption performance of the corrugated nautilus shell bio-inspired thin-walled structure made of AA6061-T6 aluminum alloy. This structure’s performance was evaluated using finite element analysis (FEA) under quasi-static and dynamic loading conditions in an axial direction, then validated by a quasi-static compression experimental test, which showed satisfactory agreement. The results show that the corrugated nautilus shell bio-inspired thin-walled structure integrated with corrugated grooves reduced peak crushing force (PCF) by 17.9% and increased specific energy absorption (SEA) by 1.3% and crush force efficiency (CFE) by 17.6% compared to non-corrugated design. It can be concluded that the proposed nautilus shell bio-inspired thin-walled structure integrated with corrugated grooves has the potential to replace conventional hollow square designs in vehicle crash box applications.
