A method to improve the energy absorption capability of fibre-reinforced composite tubes

Abstract

Till now, most of the existing works on energy absorption have been focused on the probability of using composite materials instead of metals. With the answer to this problem becoming more and more clear, researchers are altering the emphasis of their studies to another issue, i.e. applicability of the composite materials. Therefore, some experiments were elaborated on this aspect. An inner type jig, which restricts crushed tube wall to be bent towards only the inner side of the tube, is employed as a new way to improve the energy absorption capability of fibre-reinforced polymer tubes which are assumed to be an energy absorption component applied in a vehicle. Quasi-static and high-speed compressions were carried out on the unidirectional carbon square tubes to test the viability of the jig.

Keywords:

• energy absorbing mechanism
• collapse trigger mechanism
• bending stress