The Study on Collapse Behavior and Crashworthiness Capacity of AL/CFRP Tubes Focusing on Fiber Angles and Stacking Sequence

Abstract

This study has been aimed to investigate the effect of fiber orientation angle and stacking sequence on the collapse behavior and impact absorption capacity of hybrid tube. The specimens have been AL/CFRP composite materials made of cylindrical aluminum tubes (6063 -T5). The outer surface of the aluminum tube has been reinforced by wrapping with 1, 2 and 3 layers of Carbon Epoxy Fiber. The specimens have been tested with a dropped hammer of 30 kg weight and an impact speed of 6.905 m/s. Failure mode, maximum load, and average load from the test have been recorded. The FEA models of specimens have been also developed and tested with the same condition of experiment. The results have revealed that the AL/CFRP hybrid tube could resist higher impact loads than naked aluminum tube. The values maximum load and mean load were likely to increase according to the number of fiber layers, especially for the 3 layers hybrid tubes. It has been found out that the fiber angle of 45 degree had slightly effect to the load whereas the 0 and 90 degree angles have been much more effective. It has been also found out that stacking sequence has affected the pattern of failure and impact capacity considerably. The specimens with 90 degree fiber in the outer layers i.e. [0/90/90] and [0/0/90/90] have been found to provide the most crashworthy. It could be concluded that the combination and the stacking sequence of the fiber angles of 0 and 90 degree have highly affected the collapse mode and the crashworthiness capacity of hybrid tube.