Abstract: To study the energy absorption capacity of different aluminum foam-filled thin-walled aluminum alloy multi-cell plate (MCP) and single-cell plate (SCP), six kinds of aluminum foam-filled thin-wall aluminum alloy multi-cell plate and one kind of single-cell plate were designed in this study, and the numerical models of MCP and SCP were established upon nonlinear finite element software LS-DYNA. The impact resistance test of the classic aluminum alloy plate and the impact resistance test of the aluminum foam sandwich plate are simulated numerically. The analysis shows that: the numerical model established can better simulate the impact force, the deflection and deformation of the aluminum foam sandwich plate during the impact process. Based on this model, the energy absorption characteristics of aluminum foam-filled thin-walled aluminum alloy MCP and SCP under different factors were compared and studied, and the failure mode and energy absorption mechanism were analyzed. Finally, the energy absorption efficiency under different factors and the selection of optimal section type of multi-cell plate were analyzed by orthogonal tests. The results show that the failure mode of aluminum foam-filled thin-wall aluminum alloy plates is symmetric conical failure under out-of-plane impact. Both structures have two stages: elastic-plastic deformation stage and spring-back stage. Under the same displacement, the total energy (E) and specific energy absorption (SEA) of the MCP with 18 different parameters are increased by more than 400% compared with that of the SCP, which is a plate with more energy absorption characteristics and can be widely used in protection engineering.