Abstract
Our research investigated the energy absorption characteristics of chiral auxetic lattices filled cylindrical composite tubes subjected to a uniaxial and lateral quasi-static load. The lattice structures were manufactured using a 3D printing technique. Carbon fiber composite tubes without filler material were initially subjected to uniaxial and lateral quasi-static crushing load. The same types of experiment were then performed on chiral lattices and chiral lattices filled composite tubes. For the different cases, the load–displacements curves were analyzed and the specific energy absorption (SEA) values were compared. The SEA capability for the axial quasi-static crushing of the chiral lattices filled composite tubes decreased in comparison with the hollow composite design. However, the most significant result was that the average SEA value in the case of lateral loading increased dramatically in comparison with the hollow composite configuration.
Highlights
Energy-absorbing structures are encountered in many real-life situations, which involves an exchange of compressive loads between two or more objects
The specific energy absorption, the peak load, the average crushing load, crushing efficiency and stroke efficiency were calculated for different configurations and assessed to understand if auxetic structures could be needed for designing composite crushing tubes
It was found that adding a chiral lattice filler did not increase the SEA capability of the tubes in the case of uniaxial quasi-static crushing; instead, a significant decrease of the specific energy absorption was observed
Summary
Energy-absorbing structures are encountered in many real-life situations, which involves an exchange of compressive loads between two or more objects. Critical equipment or occupants should be protected from the resulting energy transfer using dedicated components that absorb the crush energy. Composite materials crush under the compressive load and absorb a significant amount of energy transfer that stems from compressive loads. In the automotive and aerospace industry, thin-walled tubes with different types of filler are commonly used as passive energy-absorbing sacrificial structures [2,3]. Composite tubes for energy absorption applications are positioned to bear the load in the uniaxial direction, in some applications such as helicopter skid landing gears, lateral loading is necessary in addition to bending loads [4]
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