The crashworthiness design of metal/CFRP hybrid tubes based on origami-ending approach: Experimental research

Abstract

Thin-walled tube as an energy absorption device is indispensable in vehicles. Recently, the crashworthiness performance of metal/carbon fiber reinforced polymer (metal/CFRP) hybrid tubes has been widely investigated. However, those tubes are mainly straight, which tend to collapse in natural modes with lower energy absorption. Additionally, research has shown that the well-designed origami patterns applied to ends of conventional metal tubes can trigger the diamond mode with excellent performance. Therefore, the similar origami patterns are also applied to the ends of internal and external metal tubes of hybrid tubes. The two metal tubes will deform in diamond mode under the guidance of origami pattern, and then forcing the CFRP tube to deform the same high-performance collapse mode with more materials destroyed. The experimental results show that the hybrid tube indeed collapses in diamond mode with an excellent crashworthiness performance. The SEA can be increased by about 135% and 85.7% compared to conventional metal tube and CFRP tube. The CFE is also higher than other types of hybrid tubes. Besides, this design ensures that the CFRP tube is still straight, which greatly facilitates the manufacturing process.