Collapsible impact energy absorbers: an overview

This paper reviews the common shapes of collapsible energy absorbers and the different modes of deformation of the most common ones. Common shapes include circular tubes, square tubes, frusta, struts, honeycombs, and sandwich plates. Common modes of deformation for circular tubes include axial crushing, lateral indentation, lateral flattening, inversion and splitting. Non-collapsible systems, such as lead extrusions or tube expansions, are considered to be beyond the scope of this review.