Compression behaviour and crashworthiness analysis of aluminum foam filled corrugated and tapered tubes with graded thickness

Thin-walled straight circular tubes (SCT) are frequently used as energy absorbing devices in the crashworthy applications. This paper introduces a various tubal configuration, namely aluminium foam filled corrugation tube and tapered tube with graded thickness, to control the collapse mode, and minimize the peak crushing force and fluctuations in force-displacement curves. Dynamic crushing simulations were carried out using commercially available finite element package ABAQUS explicit 6.13 at impact velocity of 60 km/h (corresponding to 16.7 m/s). A comparative study on the dynamic crushing behaviour of aluminum foam-filled tapered with graded thickness and corrugated tubes were performed. The results showed that deformation mode of corrugated tube is more controllable and predictable in the case of empty tubes. In foam filled tubes the mode of deformation changing from diamond or mixed mode to concertina mode which is useful for crashworthy applications. The crushing force efficiency of foam filled tubes increases when compared with the empty tubes because of a higher mean force which can be achieved by less fluctuations in force-displacement curves. The effects of corrugation wavelength and amplitude of corrugation tubes on the collapse mode, peak crushing force and energy absorption were studied. Compared to the conventional straight circular tube, initial peak force and fluctuation in the force-displacement curves of corrugated tube is considerably less. Desired crashworthy characteristics can be obtained by changing corrugation wavelength and amplitude of corrugated tubes.