Prashant Rawat, Varsha M.P., Sharad Yadav, Sai Liu, Deju Zhu, Mahesh
Crash boxes are thin-walled tubular structures that absorb impact energy during automotive safety collisions. This review provides a critical and comparative synthesis of the current state of knowledge on crash box systems. It covers the historical developments of crash boxes and the evolution of materials from conventional metals to fibre reinforced polymer composites, and hybrid designs. It examines the innovative structural designs including auxetic, origami-inspired, foam filled, and biomimetic structures and their influence on energy absorption and failure predictability. The review further discusses the failure modes commonly observed in crash boxes under axial and oblique loading conditions. Particular attention is given to Digital Image Correlation and its specific relevance to crash box design evaluation, failure mechanism monitoring, and performance measurement. The challenges associated with applying DIC in crash box studies are also discussed. This review provides researchers a critical reference for advancing crash box design and experimental evaluation.