Buckling and energy absorption of novel pre-folded tubes under axial impacts

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Dynamic response of novel pre-folded tubes subjected to axial impacts is investigated numerically. A numerical model for novel pre-folded tubes with different fold angles is proposed to study its dynamic buckling and energy absorption. Results show that the deformation process of the tube under the impact force can be divided into three phases, i.e., initial peak, stable progressive buckling, and densification stages. It is shown that at the initial failure stage, the initial peak force is much lower than one of the square tube. The buckling modes of the corrugated tubes can be summarized as the progressive buckling, dynamic plastic buckling, and mixed bulking modes. The fold angles can improve the energy absorption capacity of the pre-folded tube efficiently.