Plastic behavior of circular sandwich tubes considering the effect of local denting

Abstract

In this paper, the plastic behavior of fully clamped circular sandwich tubes with metal foam core under transverse loading is analytically, experimentally and numerically studied. Considering the strength of the filled foam, the yield criterion of the compressed sandwich tube is proposed. Using the yield criterion, an analytical model for the plastic behavior of the fully clamped circular sandwich tube is proposed, in which the effects of local denting and the interaction of bending and stretching are considered. The bending experiment of clamped circular sandwich tubes is conducted. The load–deflection and energy–deflection relations are obtained by numerical calculation for the sandwich tubes at different loading positions. The analytical results are in good agreement with numerical and experimental results. Finally, the influences of foam strength, tube-wall thickness, loading position and radius of inner tubes on the plastic behavior of sandwich tubes are studied based on the analytical model.