Influence of plain end-cap on the energy absorption characteristics of cylindrical tubular structures for lateral impact vehicle collisions

Abstract

Thin-walled cylindrical tubes have been renowned as an ideal energy absorber in aerospace and automotive industries for their lightweight potential and extraordinary energy absorbing capability. In this research article, systematic investigations on the specific energy absorption characteristics and lateral crushing behaviour of deep drawn non-capped and plain end-capped cylindrical tubular structures were performed. Initially, finite element models were developed with ABAQUS/CAE® code to predict the deformation characteristics of the proposed tubes under quasi-static lateral compression. Subsequently, detailed experimental studies on the aluminium cylindrical tubes of various thickness (1.63 mm, 2.04 mm and 3.25 mm) under lateral quasi-static loading have been performed and the lateral crushing force-deformation histories obtained were analyzed. The lateral deformation response of the proposed tubes under impact lateral loading has been studied further and analyzed with the validated finite element model. Also, the impact crushing performance of the plain end-capped cylindrical tubes was related to the non-capped cylindrical tubes and within tested samples, the plain end-capped tubes absorbed 0.8–1.6 times more specific energy than the conventional non-capped cylindrical tubes. Finally, it was found that the plain end-capped tubular structures exhibit desirable force–deformation characteristics such as uniform crushing force with a long crush stroke and maximum energy which is very important in the design of energy absorbers for transverse direction.