关于吸能设计，我也发些转载和相关链接

车身大概可以看成两部分：1) the "crush zone" or "crumple zone", and 2) the "safety cage"

safety cage construction:

Made of reinforced steel with vertical pillars, a roof, and side-door beams, the safety cage is designed to help preserve occupant space in a collision. In addition, front and rear "crush zones" that frame the trunk and engine are designed to compress in a controlled manner in a collision — helping absorb the energy of the crash.

Additional features related to the safety cage:

* Side-door beams — help reduce penetration into the passenger compartment during shallow-angle side collisions
* Side-impact, cross-car beams — designed into the vehicle at the instrument panel, rear compartment and floor areas to help channel energy
* Door hinges and latches — work together with the door's structure and steel reinforcements to help keep the doors closed during an impact.

http://microsite.chevrolet.com/safety/during/safetycage/

A Crumple Zone is, the zone of a car that absorbs energy upon impact. The purpose of a crumple zone is to increase the amount of time it takes the car to come to a complete stop in comparison to object the car hits. By increasing the time it takes for your car to come to a stop after you hit the object, the force is spread over a longer period of time. For example, suppose that by having a crumple zone in your car increases the time it takes for you to stop from 0.01 seconds to 0.2 seconds. By taking more time to slow down using the crumple zone by a factor of 20 will decrease the acceleration and therefore the force by the same factor, resulting in a force on you of 500 Newton's instead of 10,000.

更多详细信息和图解可以到下面链接去看：
http://www.k12.nf.ca/gc/Science/Physics3204/Projects2003/SlotA/ProjectA2/link20.htm

Introduction to How Crumple Zones Work

Auto safety has come a long way in the last few decades, and one of the most effective innovations is the crumple zone. Also known as a crush zone, crumple zones are areas of a vehicle that are designed to deform and crumple in a collision. This absorbs some of the energy of the impact, preventing it from being transmitted to the occupants.

更多内容和图解：
http://auto.howstuffworks.com/crumple-zone.htm/printable