Theoretical and numerical investigation of mean crushing load of uniform and non-uniform multi-cell tube

Abstract

Multi-cell tube have been proven to have better energy absorption performance than conventional thin-walled tube. The mean crushing load and wavelength of multi-cell tube were investigated in this paper. Numerical simulation was carried out firstly and the numerical values of mean crushing loads were employed to validate two existing theories. The numerical wavelengths of walls in multi-cell tube were compared with natural wavelengths and good agreement was achieved. A theory aimed at predicting the mean crushing load of uniform and non-uniform multi-cell tube was developed and verified to have high prediction accuracy.