scholarly journals Design and Numerical Simulation of Pyramidal Prefolded Patterned Thin-Walled Tubes

2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Junxian Zhou ◽  
Chuang Dong ◽  
Bingzhi Chen ◽  
Xu Niu

An improved pyramidal prefolded pattern was designed and applied to thin-walled tubes. This delicately designed pattern modularizes the tube to control the folding process and act as an inducer to trigger deformation modes with outstanding crushing performance. Dynamic crushing tests were conducted numerically; the simulation results reveal that the patterned square tube developed a deformation mode with shorter wavelength, better load consistencies, and higher energy-absorption efficiency (up to 29%) than that of the traditional counterpart. Moreover, geometric analysis was performed and structural improvements were conducted by applying the optimal geometric parameters onto an octagonal profile. The designed patterned octagonal tube collapsed into a highly efficient deformation mode known as diamond mode. Furthermore, the comparative results show that patterned octagonal tubes demonstrated an energy absorption up to 90.1% higher than that of a conventional square column while improving the geometric compliance. These findings enrich research on patterned tubes and provide new explorations for the development of high-performance energy-absorbing structures.

Author(s):  
Mengyan Shi ◽  
Jiayao Ma ◽  
Yan Chen ◽  
Zhong You

Thin-walled tubes as energy absorption devices are widely in use for their low cost and high manufacturability. Employing origami technique on a tube enables induction of a predetermined failure mode so as to improve its energy absorption efficiency. Here we study the energy absorption of a hexagonal tubular device named the origami crash box numerically and theoretically. Numerical simulations of the quasi-static axial crushing show that the pattern triggers a diamond-shaped mode, leading to a substantial increase in energy absorption and reduction in initial peak force. The effects of geometric parameters on the performance of the origami crash box are also investigated through a parametric study. Furthermore, a theoretical study on the deformation mode and energy absorption of the origami crash box is carried out, and a good match with numerical results is obtained. The origami crash box shows great promise in the design of energy absorption devices.


Author(s):  
Sean Jenson ◽  
Muhammad Ali ◽  
Khairul Alam

Abstract Thin walled axial members are typically used in automobiles’ side and front chassis to improve crashworthiness of vehicles. Extensive work has been done in exploring energy absorbing characteristics of thin walled structural members under axial compressive loading. The present study is a continuation of the work presented earlier on evaluating the effects of inclusion of functionally graded cellular structures in thin walled members under axial compressive loading. A compact functionally graded composite cellular core was introduced inside a cross tube with side length and wall thickness of 25.4 mm and 3.048 mm, respectively. The parameters governing the energy absorbing characteristics such as deformation or collapsing modes, crushing/ reactive force, plateau stress level, and energy curves, were evaluated. The results showed that the inclusion of composite graded cellular structure increased the energy absorption capacity of the cross tube significantly. The composite graded structure underwent progressive stepwise, layer by layer, crushing mode and provided lateral stability to the cross tube thus delaying local tube wall collapse and promoting large localized folds on the tube’s periphery as compared to highly localized and compact deformation modes that were observed in the empty cross tube under axial compressive loading. The variation in deformation mode resulted in enhanced stiffness of the composite structure, and therefore, high energy absorption by the structure. This aspect has a potential to be exploited to improve the crashworthiness of automobile structures.


2020 ◽  
Vol 87 (8) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yizhe Liu ◽  
Feng Xiong ◽  
Kuijian Yang ◽  
Yuli Chen

Abstract Impact accidents cause great damage to lives and properties because the destructiveness, direction, and action mode of impact loadings can hardly be predicted. Ordinary thin-walled tube systems for energy absorption require outside constraints or inside fasteners to avoid tube splashing, which affects the modifiability of the systems and limits their application in emergencies. In an effort to break through this limitation, inspired by windmill, a novel omnidirectional self-locked energy absorption system has been proposed. The proposed system is made up of thin-walled tubes with windmill-liked cross section, which are specially designed to interlock with adjacent tubes and thus provide constraints among individual tubes to resist impact loadings in spatial arbitrary directions. The spatial omnidirectional self-locking capability of the windmill-inspired system is demonstrated under distributed and concentrated impact loadings. Moreover, the windmill-inspired system shows higher energy absorption efficiency than that of the widely used round tube system and previous self-locked system under loadings in various directions, and their energy absorption properties can be further improved by combining with the round tube system, adjusting the geometric parameter of each tube and designing the arrangement of tubes with different properties in the system. This work may shed light on the energy absorption system design and expand the application of self-locked energy absorption systems.


Author(s):  
Zhichao Li ◽  
Subhash Rakheja ◽  
Wen-Bin Shangguan

Thin-walled structures are widely used as energy absorbers in automotive vehicles due to their lightweight and high-energy absorption efficiency. In order to improve the energy absorption characteristics of thin-walled structures subjected to different loading angles, different types of novel multi-cell structures are proposed in this paper. The numerical method is used to study the crushing behaviors of the proposed multi-cell structures under different loading angles. It is found that the proposed multi-cell structures have considerably small initial peak force under axial load and avoid the appearance of global buckling deformation mode under oblique loads. Moreover, reasonably distributed wall thickness for each square tube in the thin-walled structure can enhance its energy absorption capacity under different loading angles.


Author(s):  
Muhammad Ali ◽  
Khairul Alam ◽  
Eboreime Ohioma

Axial members are commonly used in automotive structures and are responsible for absorbing significant portion of impact energy in the event of an accident. This study was conducted to investigate the effects of inclusion of functionally graded cellular structures in thin walled members under compressive axial loading. A compact functionally graded cellular structure was introduced inside a 352 mm long square tube with side length and wall thickness of 74 mm and 3.048 mm, respectively. The tube wall material was aluminum. The cellular structure’s geometry was observed in the cross-section of a banana peel that has a specific graded cellular packing in a confined space. This packing enables the peel to protect the internal soft core from external impacts. The same cellular pattern was used to construct the structure in present study. The study was conducted using non-linear finite element analysis in ABAQUS. The hybrid structure (tube and graded cellular structure) was fixed on one side and on the other (free end) side, was struck by a rigid mass of 300 Kg travelling at a velocity of 35 mph (15.64 m/s) along the axis of the square tube and perpendicular to the in-plane direction of the graded cellular structure. The tube and cell walls were discretized using reduced integration, hourglass control, 4 nodes, and hexahedral shell elements. The impact plate was modeled with 4 node rigid shell elements. General contact conditions were applied to define surface interaction among graded structure, square tube, and rigid plate. The parameters governing the energy absorbing characteristics such as deformation or collapsing modes, crushing/ reactive force, and energy curves, were evaluated. The results showed that the inclusion of graded cellular structure increased the energy absorption capacity of the square tube by 41.06%. The graded structure underwent progressive stepwise, layer by layer, crushing mode and provided lateral stability to the square tube thus delaying local tube wall collapse and promoting outward convex localized folds on the tube’s periphery as compared to highly localized and compact deformation modes that are typically observed in an empty square tube under axial compressive loading. The variation in deformation mode, large contact areas, presence of graded cellular structure resulted in enhanced stiffness of the hybrid structure, and therefore, high energy absorption by the structure. The results of this preliminary study show a potential of functionally graded cellular materials to significantly improve the energy absorbing capacities of thin walled members under axial loading by altering member’s crushing deformation modes.


2014 ◽  
Vol 624 ◽  
pp. 13-19
Author(s):  
Zhao Peng Zhou ◽  
You Quan Qin ◽  
Fei Liu ◽  
Yan Mi Wang

In order to enhance the lateral compression energy absorption capability of round steel tube without obviously increasing the mass of round steel tube, this paper has developed the polyurethane foam filled round steel tube and through experimental comparison, studied such parameters as the laterally-compressed platform loading, total absorbed energy and energy absorbed per unit mass for the filled tubes and empty tubes of three kinds of pipe diameter. The results show that the round steel tube filled with polyurethane foam can change the deformation mode of round steel tube and increase the energy absorption capability of steel tube substantially with very little increase of mass; the energy absorption efficiency is obviously higher than the one of empty steel tube.


Author(s):  
Muhammad Ali ◽  
Khairul Alam ◽  
Eboreime Ohioma

Thin walled axial members are typically used in vehicles’ side and front chassis to improve crashworthiness. Extensive work has been done in exploring energy absorbing characteristics of thin walled structural members under axial compressive loading. The present study is a continuation of the work presented earlier on evaluating the effects of presence of functionally graded cellular structures in thin walled members. A functionally graded aluminum cellular core in compact form was placed inside a steel square tube. The crushing behavior was modeled using ABAQUS/Explicit module. The variables affecting the energy absorbing characteristics, for example, deformation or collapsing modes, crushing/ reactive force, plateau stress level, and energy curves, were studied. An approximate 35% increase in the energy absorption capacity of steel tube was observed by adding aluminum graded cellular structure to the square tube. The aluminum graded structure crushed systematically in a layered manner and its presence as core supported the steel square tube side walls in transverse direction and postponed the local (tube) wall collapse. This resulted in composite tube undergoing larger localized folds as compared to highly compact localized folds, which appeared in the steel tube without any graded core. The variation in deformation mode resulted in increased stiffness of the composite structure, and therefore, high energy absorption by the structure. Further, a relatively constant crushing force was observed in the composite tube promoting lower impulse. This aspect has a potential to be exploited to improve the crashworthiness of automobile structures.


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