Channel Section Short Column with Fixed Ends under Axial Impact Load

Short columns of channel section with fixed ends are subjected to impact loading by dropping weight and the axial impact features are thoroughly studied. Impact experiments are conducted on various length channel section short column of A5052 aluminum alloy with a constant type of section. The experiments are conducted with various dropping weight and height for each specimen length. Various results of correlations with given energy, shortening displacements, duration time of reducing impact velocity and weight dropping velocity are obtained. The results indicate that, even for a single column length, the given kinetic energy is not sufficient to classify the deformation mode. Velocity and weight mass are also key factors of impact phenomena. The deformation mode throughout the series of experiments is local buckling, independent on the initial specimen length. Numerical simulations with explicit transient finite element code LS-DYNA are also conducted to simulate the component level impact process in order to identify the governing parameters for efficiently and precisely utilizing lower degrees-of-freedom models.