Strengthening Mechanism and Impact Energy Absorption of TaC-Reinforced Aluminum Foam-Filled Energy-Absorbing Box

The energy-absorbing box plays an important role in energy absorption and buffering during the collision of automobiles, but traditional energy-absorbing boxes rely on their aluminum alloy shells for energy dissipation. In this study, TaC-reinforced aluminum foam composite (AT-FC) was filled into an aluminum alloy square tube to design a new type of structure for an energy-absorbing box. The effects of TaC particle content, Ti powder content, and wood fiber content on the yield stress and plateau stress of the composites were optimized using response surface methodology. The optimized composite containing 10.52% TaC exhibited a more uniform pore structure and improved energy absorption behavior. Through a combination of finite element simulation and actual testing, the stress changes and energy absorption state of energy-absorbing boxes under quasi-static compression and dynamic impact are explored. The energy absorption performance of the AT-FC-filled energy-absorbing box is better than that of Al foam-filled energy-absorbing boxes and unfilled energy-absorbing boxes. In low-speed impact, the energy absorption capacity of the AT-FC-filled energy-absorbing box can reach 35 MJ/m 3 , which is 34.6% higher than the unfilled energy-absorbing box and 20.7% higher than the Al foam-filled energy-absorbing box. These findings demonstrate that AT-FC is a promising lightweight energy-absorbing material for crash-box applications.