Dynamic crashing behavior of thin-walled conical tubular structures with nonlinearly-graded diameters

Abstract

Thin-walled structures with graded property have been paid more attention in recent years due to their significant balance between lightweight and crashworthiness. However, few studies have been focused on energy absorption capacity of thin-walled conical tubes with graded diameters. In this paper, the thin-walled conical aluminum tubes with nonlinearly-graded diameters are introduced and their corresponding crashing characteristics are performed. The diameters are assumed to nonlinearly vary according to a power-law distribution function primarily determined by a graded exponent n. It is found that the total weight of thin-walled conical tubes decreases with the increasing of the gradient exponent. The energy-absorbed performances such as specific energy absorption, initial peak crashing force, and mean crashing force of those graded tubular structures are numerically analyzed. And then the effects of various geometric parameters such as the gradient exponent, deformation distance, and diameter range on crashing behaviors are further evaluated. It is observed that those parameters especially the gradient exponent has significantly obvious effects on crashworthiness of the proposed nonlinearly graded tubes. It is also noted that the straight conical structure with gradient n = 1.0 may not show the best energy absorption characteristics compared with other gradients. The work could provide valuable information for effective design of thin-walled energy-absorbing structures with variable geometrical parameters.