CRASHWORTHINESS INVESTIGATION OF METALLIC THIN-WALLED TUBES UNDER AXIAL IMPACT LOADING
Cengiz BAYKASOGLU Merve Tunay CETIN Ozlem YALCIN
AbstractIn this study, the crush behavior of different aluminum and steel based thin-walled structures with square and circular cross sections, different semi-apical angles and thicknesses are investigated and compared under axial impact loading. In order to investigate crush behavior of these structures, impact with a fixed rigid wall is simulated by using commercial dynamic/explicit finite element (FE) code, Abaqus. The elastic-plastic material models are used and the effect of strain rate is included in the FE model by using the Cowper-Symonds overstress power law. The FE model is validated with the previously established solutions in literature. The maximum and mean crush forces, crush force efficiency (CFE), total absorbed energy (Etotal), specific energy absorption (SEA) and deformation modes are computed to compare the crashworthiness performance of the thin-walled structures.