Sandwich structures with tapered tubes as core: A quasi-static investigation

Abstract

In this article, the experimental and finite element analysis is utilized to investigate the quasi-static compression features of sandwich constructions built with tapered tubes. 3D printing technology was utilized to create the hollow centers of the tapering tubes, with and without corrugations. The results demonstrate that the energy absorption (EA) and specific energy absorption (SEA) of the single corrugated tapered tube sandwich are 51.6% and 19.8% higher, respectively, than those of the conical tube sandwich. Furthermore, the results demonstrate that energy absorbers can benefit from corrugation in order to increase their efficiency. Additionally, the tapered corrugated tubes’ resistance to oblique impacts was studied. Compared to a straight tube, the tapered tube is more resistant to oblique loads and has a lower initial peak crushing force (PCF), according to numerical simulations. After conducting a parametric study, it was discovered that the energy absorption performance of the sandwich construction is significantly affected by the amplitude, number of corrugations, and wall thickness. EA and SEA of DTS with corrugation number of 8 increased by 17.4% and 29.6%, respectively, while PCF decreased by 9.2% compared to DTS with corrugation number of 10.