Crush dynamics of rubber tube under low velocity impact

Abstract

It is proved that hyperelastic honeycomb coatings can attenuate underwater blast loads impinged on the ship hull. The crush behavior of a unit tube cell of the coating made of rubber material is investigated in this study. A series of tests are conducted to investigate the crush dynamic behavior of the tube under low velocity impact loads. Numerical analyses are carried out to explore the impact process of the rubber tube and the role of some dynamic parameters, thereby serve as a reference in the design of new coating. Some characteristics, such as the geometric imperfections, nonlinear elasticity and material viscosity, are analyzed. The results of simulation and experiments show that the geometric imperfections not only attenuate the shock force in the buckling and the force plateau stages, but also enhance the shock force in the densification stage greatly and promote the global peak force initiation, while the material viscosity enhances the force plateau and attenuates the shock force in the densification stage greatly. These effects are illustrated and quantified with the aid of experiments and numerical calculations.