Crashworthiness investigation for functionally graded thickness (FGT) circular column

There has been continuous pursuit of new thin-walled structures in transportation and defense industries recently for more efficient usage of materials in order to achieve light weight and high energy absorption. In this paper, a functionally graded thickness (FGT) tube with a varying wall thickness along axial direction is introduced. The established finite element model of FGT circular tube is validated by performed physical experiments. Numerical analysis demonstrates that gradient exponent controlling the variation of thickness distributions and the thickness interval have significant effect on governing the percentage increase in absorbed-energy. Furthermore, the FGT circular column is found superior to the uniform thickness column in crashworthiness.