A numerical analysis of empty and foam-filled aluminium conical tubes under oblique impact loading

Abstract

In real impact applications, an energy absorber rarely sustains dynamic loading either axial or oblique but a combination of both. Established studies have proved that thin-walled tube is an excellent energy absorber under dynamic loading. Furthermore, the introduction of foam filling successfully enhanced the energy absorption capacity of thin-walled tube. However, the understanding of its response under oblique loading has yet been fully explored. Moreover, emerging in automotive industry has lead to increase interests on lightweight materials such as aluminium alloy. As such, this paper presents the crushing behaviour of empty and foam-filled aluminium alloy (AA6061-T6) conical tubes under oblique impact loading using a validated nonlinear finite element (FE) code, LS-DYNA. The study aims to assess the effect of foam filling on the energy absorption of AA6061-T6 tubes for variations in filler density. In fact, to the best of our knowledge, this study is the first attempt to evaluate a response of empty and foam-filled aluminum conical tube by using an experimentally validated model under oblique dynamic loading conditions. Good correlations between the numerical and experimental results were observed. The study show that initial peak force and the energy absorption increase with increasing filler density under axial and oblique loading. On the other hand, the effect of foam filling (0.534 g/cm3 aluminium foam filler) is less pronounced for the initial peak force under axial impact loading. Furthermore, the initial peak force and dynamic force of empty and foam-filled AA6061-T6 conical tubes decrease as the load angle increases from 0 deg to 20 deg hence reduces the energy absorption capacity.