<![CDATA[This research investigates the crashworthiness performance and energy absorption behavior of crash boxes constructed from hybrid materials comprising Polylactic acid (PLA), aluminum (Al), and copper (Cu) under quasi-static axial compression. The crash box configuration comprises a PLA outer shell, an internal Al or Cu core, and PLA-based multi-cell structures with varying geometries, including circular, square, and hexagonal shapes. These components were fabricated through 3D printing and subjected to quasi-static axial compression testing. The experimental findings indicate that incorporating a hybrid core significantly enhances energy absorption capabilities. Among the tested configurations, the hexagonal multi-cell design exhibited the highest energy absorption, reaching 0.53 kJ. In addition, the CB-Al-H configuration, which uses an Al core, showed the highest specific energy absorption (SEA) of 77.77 kJ/kg and a crushing force efficiency (CFE) of 0.43%. This SEA value is approximately 69.17% higher than that of the copper-based configuration (CB-Cu-H), which recorded 45.98 kJ/kg with a CFE of 0.48%. The lower SEA observed in the copper-core configuration is primarily due to the higher Cu density, which increases the overall structural mass and consequently reduces specific energy absorption.]]>
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