The energy absorption characteristics of combined tubes based on structural differentiated design: Height difference and variable fold distributions

Abstract

To achieve the goals of high energy dissipation, a low initial peak, and small load fluctuation, a differentiated combination design of multitube combined structure was developed. Based on a combination of experiment, simulation, and theory, the influences of height and fold distribution on the peak-formation time sequence were investigated, and the combined method of two configurations in the multitube combination was determined. The results show that the initial peak and load fluctuation of the combined structure with variable tube heights and different fold distributions are reduced by 18.42% and 67.77%, respectively, compared with the multitube structure of the same configuration.

Graphical Abstract

Keywords:

• Structural differentiated design
• multitube combined
• height difference
• fold distribution
• load fluctuation

Additional information

Funding

This research was undertaken at Key Laboratory of Traffic Safety on Track (Central South University), Ministry of Education, China. The authors gratefully acknowledge the support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 52202455). This paper also supported by the Nature Science Foundation for Excellent Youth Scholars of Hunan Province (Grant No. 2019JJ30034), Hunan Postgraduate Research and Innovation Project (Grant No. CX20210124), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities of Central South University (Grant No. 2021zzts0161).