Energy absorption, deformation and crushing behavior of bi-metallic tubes with different cross-sectional shapes under axial loading

Abstract

Thin walled tubes because of their lightweight, economic manufacturing and efficient energy absorption characteristics are widely used in safety applications contemporaneously many researchers have investigated the behavior of thin-walled metallic tubes with the different cross section under identical test conditions for assessing its effectiveness in crashworthiness. This paper presents the deformation and energy absorption characteristics of bi-tubular tubes along with several different cross-sectional shapes whose base was set as the boundary condition whereas in reference to the axis of the tubes the load was applied at the opposite end with the help of a rigid wall. The analogy of double-walled tubes with different cross-section alters the deformation modes substantially and resulted in significant increase in the energy absorption capacity over bi-metallic tubes as an effect of stress wave propagation. The overall results divulge that the proposed geometry can be a good alternative due to stabilized deformation mode in safety applications such as a locomotive, automotive industries.