Numerical and experimental investigation on corrugation geometry for metallic tubes under lateral loading

Abstract

Energy absorption devices are being used to protect structures from severe damages and reduce injury to occupants during accidents. The integrated characteristics of crash absorption devices can be classified as high energy absorption capacity, light-weight, and cost-effective. One of the thin-walled structures which has drawn the attention of scientists is corrugated tube structure. In this paper, the effect of corrugation geometry on the crushing parameters of an aluminum corrugated tube is investigated. In this regard, different elliptical corrugation shapes were deemed and the compression response was numerically evaluated under lateral quasi-static loading. Finally, the crashworthiness parameters were extracted and compared to determine the influence of corrugation shape on the crashworthy response. Our results showed that using vertical elliptical corrugation decrease the densification point. Moreover, there is a gradual enhancement of mean crushing load by moving from the horizontal elliptical corrugations to the vertical ones. Also, by modifying of corrugation shape, the stress variation pattern changes, significantly.