Abstract: Foam filled thin-wall structures can effectively improve the crashworthiness of automobile thin-walled element. To design more efficient and lighter absorber structures and meet the safety design demand, a novel aluminum foam filled double square structure is presented, and deterministic optimum design of energy absorption characteristic is preformed for aluminum foam filled structures. However, the design parameters, such as the thickness, yield stress of thin wall and density of aluminum foam, can often have uncertainties in simulation and manufacturing process, it can make the deterministic optimal solution convergence to the design constraint boundaries, and lose the reliable design demand. Hence, reliability design optimization scheme based on kriging approximate models and first order reliability method is presented. Finally, reliability design optimization with parameters uncertainties of aluminum foam filled structures is performed. The optimal results show that the reliability optimal solutions not only are far from the constraint boundaries, but also better meet the safety and reliability of aluminum foam filled structure design demand.

Key words: Aluminum foam, Approximate model, Reliability optimization, Thin-walled structures, Arc ion plating, Microstructure, Thermal stability, TiSiN/AlCrN coating, Tribological properties