Failure Mechanism and Energy Absorption of Foam Filled Hybrid Aluminum-Glass/Epoxy Tubes under Three-Point Bending

Experimental work has been performed on the behaviour of glass/epoxy, aluminum, and aluminum-glass/epoxy empty and polyurethane foam filled tubes subjected to three-point bending. Tubes were of circular and square cross section area. Hand layup method was used to fabricate the tubes. Each tube is made of six layers. Inner diameter and total length of the tubes were 50 mm and 250 mm respectively. Bending load-displacement response, crush force efficiency, and absorbed energy were drawn and discussed. Effect of foam filler, material of the tube and stacking sequence on the maximum bending load was investigated. Energy absorption was determined and discussed. failure mode was investigated. It has been found that the polyurethane foam filler increased the maximum bending load and the energy absorption of the circular and square cross section area tubes. Using hybrid aluminum-glass/ epoxy enhanced the bending load and absorbed energy of the aluminum tubes. Cracks were observed at the upper and lower surfaces at the centre of the glass/epoxy tubes. While the aluminum tubes deformed significantly with either no cracking or with one crack appeared at the centre of the top surface of the tube.

Numerical analysis of circular and square section concrete filled aluminum tubes under axial compression

In this paper, the finite element (FE) method was used to investigate the axial compressive behaviors of circular and square concrete filled aluminum tubes (CFAT). Firstly, the simulational results were compared with the experimental results and the accuracy of the proposed FE model was verified. On this basis, the FE model was further applied to compare the mechanical properties of both circular and square CFATs under axial compression. It was found that the circular CFATs have a better effect on restraining the core concrete than square CFATs. The parametric analysis was also conducted based on the proposed FE model. It was noticed that the mechanical differences of the two kinds of CFATs gradually decreased with the increase of the aluminum ratio, aluminum strength and concrete strength.