On the Crushing Behavior of Foam-Filled Composite Tubes under Compressive Loading

Abstract

The present papers determine the effect of composite pultrusion square tubes E-glass polyester empty and polymeric foam-filled subjected to axial compressive loading. The specimens of square composite pultrusion were compressed experimentally under axial loadings to examine the effect of empty and polymeric foam-filled with different wall-thickness. The wall-thickness was used in this study were 2.1 and 2.4 mm. During the experimental observation, three characteristic crushing stages were identified as initial peak load, progressive crushing and compaction zone stages. The composite pultrusion square tube profile were analyzed and investigated in terms of crashworthiness parameters to meet the improvement of structural material widely used in automobile, aerospace and marine applications. Result obtained from experimental analysis such that initial peak load, mean load, energy absorption and specific energy absorption versus displacement curves were compared for each specimen. Results showed that the tubes energy absorption was affected significantly by different tube profile. It is also found that the polymeric foam-filled exhibit superb crashworthy structure on specific absorbed energy and the amount of initial peak load, mean load and absorbed energy recorded higher than the empty tube profiles.