Improving the energy-absorbing properties of hybrid aluminum-composite tubes using nanofillers for crashworthiness applications

Author(s):  
A Praveen Kumar ◽  
D Maneiah ◽  
L Ponraj Sankar

Thin-walled tubular configurations with hybridization concept have been gained special consideration in recent years owing to their substantial balance between light-weight characteristics and crashworthiness performance. In this context, some research studies have been concentrated on the feasibility of a thin-walled metal-composite hybrid tube. It is also eminent that the impact energy absorption capability of such hybrid tubes can further be enhanced through modification of the epoxy matrix by adding nanofillers. In this research article, aluminum-based multiwalled carbon nanotubes reinforced epoxy composite cylindrical tubes are introduced, and their corresponding quasi-static crushing behavior, subjected to lateral loading is examined experimentally. The influence of the number of fabric plies (2, 3, and 4) and type of fabric (basalt, glass) of the composite part on the crashworthiness characteristics was evaluated. The overall outcomes revealed that the proposed hybrid tube samples showed outstanding energy absorption characteristics, comprising a stable crush force–deformation response and better specific energy absorption. It is also noted that the deformation behavior and energy absorption capability of the aluminum tubes could be considerably improved by applying a nanocomposite-wrapped plies.

Author(s):  
A Praveen Kumar

In recent years, aluminium-composite hybrid tubular structures, which combine the stable and progressive plastic deformation of the aluminium metal with light-weight composite materials, are obtaining increased consideration for meeting the advanced needs of crashworthiness characteristics. This research article presents the experimental outcomes of novel aluminium/composite-capped cylindrical tubes subjected to quasi-static and impact axial loads. The influence of various capped geometries in the aluminium segment and three different fabrics of the composite segment in the cylindrical tube are investigated experimentally. The outcomes of the impact crushing test are also correlated with the quasi-static results of the proposed aluminium/composite-capped cylindrical tubes. The overall outcomes revealed that the crashworthiness characteristics of crushing force consistency and specific energy absorption of the aluminium-composite hybrid tubes are superior to those of the bare aluminium tubes. When the glass fabric/epoxy composite is wrapped to aluminium cylindrical tubes, the specific energy absorption increases about 23–30%, and the wrapping of hybrid glass/kenaf fabrics increases the specific energy absorption of almost 40–52%. Such a hybrid tubular structures would be of huge prospective to be used as effective energy-absorbing devices in aerospace and automotive applications. A further benefit of the composite-wrapping approach is that the composite might be retro-fitted to aluminium tubes, and the energy absorption capability is shown to be significantly enhanced by such utilization.


2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 4903-4907

Thin-walled tubular components have been broadly utilized in energy absorption applications, to improve the crashworthiness of the structure and to mitigate the impact kinetic energy through progressive plastic buckling. The extensive usage of cylindrical tubes as impact energy attenuators is owing to their superior crashworthiness behaviour, easy fabrication, less cost, and light-weight efficacy. The current paper examines the lateral impact behaviour of thin-walled aluminum multi-cell square tubes of different configurations using numerical simulations. These non-linear impact simulations were performed on multi-cell square tubes using finite element ABAQUS/CAE explicit code. From the overall results obtained, the crashworthiness performance of multi-cell square tubes of various configurations were compared. Moreover, multi-cell square tube of first type were recognized as most prominent for better energy absorption. This type of tubes was found to be effective one to improve the lateral crashworthiness performance


Author(s):  
Jianxun Du ◽  
Peng Hao ◽  
Kai Liu ◽  
Lin’an Li ◽  
Mabao Liu

With the increasing damage of lives and properties caused by impact accidents, thin-walled tubes have been widely employed to make energy-absorbing structures in the field of automotive engineering due to their lightweight and energy absorption ability. In this work, we proposed three kinds of thin-walled bio-mimetic tubes inspired by horsetail plants and investigated the energy absorption abilities of the above structures with hollow columns under impact loading by means of the finite-element method. The effect of three factors, including column diameter, wall thickness, and impact angle, on the energy absorption characteristics of the bio-mimetic structure, is discussed. The primary outcome of this research is a design method for the use of thin-walled multi-cell tubes for an energy absorption device where impact loading is expected. It was also found that the energy absorption performances of the hexagonal structures are better than that of the triangular and quadrilateral ones. Moreover, the results revealed that the absorbed energy by thin-walled bio-mimetic structures shows more dependence on the impact angle than on the wall thickness of the tube.


2017 ◽  
Vol 865 ◽  
pp. 612-618 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Malawat ◽  
Jos Istiyanto ◽  
D.A. Sumarsono

Crush initiators are the weakest points to reduce initial peak load force with significant energy absorption ability. The objective of this paper is to study the effects of square tube thickness and crush initiators position for impact energy absorber (IEA) performance on thin-walled square tubes. Two square tubes having thickness about 0.6 mm (specimen code A) and 1 mm (specimen Code C) were tested under dynamic load. The crushing initiator is designed around the shape of the tube wall and has eight holes with a fixed diameter of 6.5 mm. In the experiment, the crushing initiator was determined at 5 different locations on the specimen wall. These locations are 10 mm, 20 mm. 30 mm, 40 mm, and 50 mm measured from the initial collision position of the specimen tested. The impact load mass was about 80 kg and had a drop height of about 1.5 m. Using the simulation program of the LabVIEW Professional Development System 2011 and National Instrument (NI) 9234 software equipped with data acquisition hardware NI cDAQ-9174 the signal from the load cell was sent to a computer. By controlling the thickness of the thin-walled square tube, the peak loading force can be decreased by approximately 56.75% and energy absorption ability of IEA can be increased approximately to 11.83%. By using different thin-walled square tube can produce different best crush initiators position with the lowest peak load force.


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.


2013 ◽  
Vol 446-447 ◽  
pp. 109-112
Author(s):  
A. Othman ◽  
A.A. Arifin ◽  
S. Abdullah ◽  
A.K. Ariffin ◽  
N.A.N. Mohamed

The effect of specific absorbed energy on pultruded profile and thin-walled aluminum composite square cross-section tubes were studied via experimentally. The type of strand mat E-glass reinforced polyester resin was conducted in this study. The specimens of square pultruded and thin-walled wrapped strand mat E-glass composite were compressed under quasi-static of obliquely loadings from the top moving plat platen. For each specimen of composite tubes, triggering mechanism was applied on frontal end top of the tube to obtain the progressive failure throughout the crash event. The pultruded profile tube wall-thicknesses of 2.1 mm and thin-walled aluminum 1.9 mm thickness wrapped 3 layer woven fabric were examined, and the effects of crushing behaviors and failure modes were discussed. Results showed that the tubes energy absorption capability was affected significantly by different type of composite made in term of internal energy.


Author(s):  
Gülce Özturk ◽  
Altan Kayran

In this paper, a crushable absorber system is designed to analyze the dynamic behavior and performance of a helicopter seat. The mechanism of the absorption system makes use of the crash energy to plastically deform the aluminum material of the seat legs. Seat structure is composed of a bucket, two legs and two sliding parts on each leg. Seat legs are made of aluminum and and the sliding parts of the seat are steel. During the impact event, the heavier sliding parts move down and crash the aluminum material for the purpose of deforming the aluminum material under the sliding parts and reduce the crash energy. The designed helicopter seat is analyzed using the explicit finite element method to evaluate how the seat energy absorbing mechanism works. Dynamic simulations are performed in ABAQUS by crashing the seat to a fixed rigid wall. To simulate the plastic deformation, true stress-strain curve of the aluminum material of the seat leg has been used. Time response results are filtered to calculate the meaningful g loads which incur damage to the occupants. Analyses are performed with and without the energy absorption mechanism in order to see the effectiveness of the energy absorption mechanism on the human survivability by comparing the g loads on the seat bucket with the acceptable loads specified by EASA. This study is a preliminary study intended to check the effectiveness of the damping mechanism based on the plastic deformation of the aluminum legs of the seat in the event of a crash.


Materials ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (19) ◽  
pp. 4304
Author(s):  
Miroslaw Ferdynus ◽  
Patryk Rozylo ◽  
Michal Rogala

The paper presents the results of numerical tests of impact and energy absorption capacity of thin-walled columns, subjected to axial impact loading, made of aluminum alloy, and having a square cross-section and spherical indentations on their lateral surfaces. The numerical models were validated using an experiment that was conducted on the Instron CEAST 9350 High Energy System drop hammer. Material properties of the applied aluminum alloy were determined on the basis of a static tension test. The crushing behavior of the columns and some crashworthiness indicators were investigated. On the basis of the results of the conducted analyses, conclusions were drawn about the most beneficial design/constructional variants in terms of achieved crashworthiness parameters.


2006 ◽  
Vol 306-308 ◽  
pp. 739-744 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiao Dong Cui ◽  
Tao Zeng ◽  
Dai Ning Fang

The impact response and energy absorbing characteristics of laminated, foam sandwich and honeycomb sandwich composites under ballistic impact have been studied in this investigation. An improved model is proposed in this paper to predict the ballistic property of the laminated composites. In this model, the material structures related to fiber lamination angles are designed in terms of their anti-impacting energy absorption capability. The ballistic limit speed and energy absorption per unit thickness of the three composites under different conditions are calculated. It is shown that honeycomb sandwich composite has the best ballistic resistance capability and energy absorption property among the three composites.


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