Analytical and experimental investigations on axial crushing of aluminum tube with vertically corrugated

Abstract

In the present research, the crushing response and crashworthiness characteristics of aluminum circular tubes with and without vertical corrugations were studied. In this regard, crashworthiness characteristics and collapsing behaviors of these structures are analyzed. The tubes of higher diameter under quasi-static axial compression show greater values of crashworthiness indexes compared with those of the tubes with smaller diameter, except SEA of a small tube with 6 vertical corrugations. The energy absorption capacity is enhanced by the combination between small diameter and the number of vertical corrugations. The peak force of the vertically corrugated tubes is greater than that of non-corrugated ones; however, their force-displacement curves are smoother. The influence of the number of vertical corrugations on the crashworthiness performance is studied. An analytical relationship is developed for mean force based on the experimental results and the ‘plastic hinge line’ concept. A comparison of the analytical results with the experimental ones indicates the reasonable accuracy of the analytical models. Improved Technique of Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (ITOPSIS) is employed to select the best structure for energy absorption purposes.