Composite-Material Structures for Absorbing Crash Energy

Improved lightweight composite-material structures have been invented to protect persons and equipment during aircraft and ground-vehicle crashes. These structures are designed to hold their initial shapes and sustain rated loads under normal operating conditions and, during crashes, to undergo sustained deformation with high stroke efficiency at tailored crush loads to absorb kinetic energy. The advantages offered by these structures over prior crash-energy-absorbing structures, including composite-material ones, are that these structures can be fabricated by use of relatively simple, cost-effective techniques and the designs of the structures can readily be adapted to a variety of applications.