Abstract
The structural members must be designed to control characteristics of energy absorption for protecting passengers in a car accident. Study on collapse characteristics of structural member is currently conducted in parallel with other studies on effective energy absorption capacity of structural members with diverse cross-sectional shapes and various materials. This study concerns the crashworthiness of the widely used vehicle structural members, square thin-walled tubes, which are excellent in the point of the energy absorption capacity. The absorbed energy, mean collapse load and deformation mode were analyzed for side member which absorbs most of the collision energy. To predict and control the energy absorption, controller is designed in consideration of its influence on height, thickness and width ration in this study. The absorbed energy and mean collapse load of square tubes were increased by $15{\sim}20%$ in using the controller, and energy absorbing capability of the specimen was slightly changed by change of the high controller's height.
