Crushing responses and energy absorption behaviors of multi-cell CFRP tubes: Fid-Bau Portal

Crushing responses and energy absorption behaviors of multi-cell CFRP tubes

Liu, Qiang / Fu, Jie / Ma, Yitao / Zhang, Yanqin / Li, Qing

Abstract Design of multi-cell sectional configuration has been considered an effective way to enhance the crashworthiness performance of metallic thin-walled structure. Nevertheless, it remains under-studied whether this approach can achieve similar effect for fiber reinforced composite structures. Therefore, this paper aims to study the crushing responses and energy absorption behaviors of multi-cell squared carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) tubes fabricated by using hot compression molding process. The effects of CFRP cell number, wall thickness and trigger mechanism on crashworthiness characteristics were investigated. The experimental results showed that under the same weight, the energy absorption of double-cell tube was lower than that of single-cell tube. This was due to the fact that there was insufficient deformation in the T-shaped region of double-cell CFRP tube. The inner fronds generated in the middle ribs caused part of tubal wall near T-shaped region to bend completely outwards rather than to crush progressively under axial compression, thus losing certain capacity of energy absorption. In addition, a double-shell finite element model was constructed to gain further insights into the crushing behavior of the double-cell CFRP tube. The numerical model effectively replicated the collapse mode; and good agreement was obtained between the experimental and numerical load-displacement curves. The study exhibits considerable potential of developing crashworthy multi-cell CFRP structures.

Highlights • Crushing responses of the single-cell and double-cell CFRP tubes were studied. • SEA of single-cell CFRP tube was higher than that of double-cell counterpart. • Insufficient deformation in T-shaped part would lose certain energy absorption capacity. • Wall thickness and triggers have considerable effects on crushing characteristics.