Quasi-static axial crushing of thin-walled steel tapered tubes with hybrid geometry: experimental and numerical investigation

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the crashworthiness performance of thin-walled tapered tubes with hybrid geometry (HG-tubes) both experimentally and numerically (finite element code LS–DYNA) under quasi-static axial compression. The HG-tube cross section progressively changes along the axial length from circular to square. First, axial crushing tests of mild steel specimens were conducted. Then, two numerical models were designed to simulate the crushing behaviour of each specimen: one considering the boundary geometrical imperfections (in order to examine their effect on the crashworthiness performance) and the other considering a perfect geometrical structure. Lastly, a numerical parametric study was carried out, where new series of tapered HG-tubes models were crushed. The varying parameter was the perimeter of the small base of the tube, while the perimeter of the large base, the wall thickness, and the axial length remained constant. Introducing the boundary geometrical imperfections into the numerical models did not essentially impact the energy absorption. The HG-tubes outperformed the tubes with square cross section but not the tubes with circular cross section in terms of energy absorption.

Keywords:

• Tapered tubes
• frusta
• axial crushing
• energy absorption
• crashworthiness
• LS–DYNA

Acknowledgement

The first author is grateful to the Foundation for Education and European Culture for its generous financial support.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.