Comparative Analysis of Crashworthiness Capability of Laminate Tubes Structure with 0° Plies of Unidirectinally Arrayed Chopped Strand

Abstract

This paper presents the crashworthiness performance of carbon reinforced epoxy laminate tubular structure of three different kind tubes made of 0˚ plies Unidirectionally Arrayed Chopped Strand (UACS) introduced into laminate tube. UACS plies with discontinuous angled slit and slit perpendicular to fiber direction, namely bi-angle slits and staggered slits were used as 0˚ ply, respectively, instead of conventional continuous fiber ply to investigate relationship between crashworthiness capacities and progressive collapse behavior under quasi-static crushing tests. Newly designed laminate tube for crashworthy structure made of 0˚ plies UACS bi-angle slits and staggered slit was succesfully enhanced specific energy absorption by about 9.1% and 4.3% respectively compare to conventional continuous fiber laminate tube. The crushed laminate tubes then were sectioned through the impact point and micro-photograph were taken to show the failure behavior, which include effect of distribution slit on delamination, matrix cracking, curvature size, friction, etc. It is shown that UACS laminate beside of showing excellent formability also become newly auto trigger mechanism to achieve much stable and controllable collapse with much extensive fiber fracture occurred.