Comparisons of honeycomb sandwich and foam-filled cylindrical columns under axial crushing loads

For the conventional thin-walled energy absorber, the energy dissipation during a collision is concentrated in relatively narrow zones. This means that a great deal of material does not participate in the plastic deformation or enter the large plastic deformation stage. To expand the plastic deformation zones and improve the energy absorption efficiency, the authors presented a new type of honeycomb sandwich circular column. This innovative energy absorber is a composite structure composed of two circular aluminum tubes filled with core shaped as a large-cell honeycomb lattice. In this paper, six different honeycomb sandwich circular columns were investigated numerically. Comparisons of the interaction effect between tubes and filler, the deformation modes and the energy absorption abilities of these columns were conducted. The results were as following. The kagome sandwich column had the best energy absorption capability, followed by the columns sandwiched with triangle, hexagon lattices. In addition, foam-filled columns with different adhesive conditions were also simulated and compared with the honeycomb sandwich columns. It was found that increasing the adhesive strength improved the energy absorption and changed the deformation mode of the foam-filled columns. Furthermore, comparison showed that the honeycomb sandwich columns had higher specific energy absorption capability than the foam-filled tubes except for the strong bonded case. The kagome sandwich column performed best in crashworthiness, followed by triangle sandwich column.

[1]  Tomasz Wierzbicki,et al.  Crash behavior of box columns filled with aluminum honeycomb or foam , 1998 .

[2]  T. Wierzbicki,et al.  Axial Crushing of Multicorner Sheet Metal Columns , 1989 .

[3]  H. Zarei,et al.  Optimum honeycomb filled crash absorber design , 2008 .

[4]  T. Wierzbicki,et al.  Experimental and numerical studies of foam-filled sections , 2000 .

[5]  T. Wierzbicki,et al.  On the Crushing Mechanics of Thin-Walled Structures , 1983 .

[6]  O. Hopperstad,et al.  Validation of constitutive models applicable to aluminium foams , 2002 .

[7]  T. Y. Reddy,et al.  Axial compression of foam-filled thin-walled circular tubes , 1988 .

[8]  H. Kavi,et al.  Predicting energy absorption in a foam-filled thin-walled aluminum tube based on experimentally determined strengthening coefficient , 2006 .

[9]  Mark White,et al.  A theoretical analysis for the quasi-static axial crushing of top-hat and double-hat thin-walled sections , 1999 .

[10]  Tomasz Wierzbicki,et al.  Experimental and numerical analyses of bending of foam-filled sections , 2001 .

[11]  M. Langseth,et al.  Static crushing of square aluminium extrusions with aluminium foam filler , 1999 .

[12]  Zhiliang Tang,et al.  Crashworthiness investigation of kagome honeycomb sandwich cylindrical column under axial crushing loads , 2010 .

[13]  Mark White,et al.  Experimental study into the energy absorbing characteristics of top-hat and double-hat sections subjected to dynamic axial crushing , 1999 .

[14]  N. Fleck,et al.  Isotropic constitutive models for metallic foams , 2000 .

[15]  O. Hopperstad,et al.  Constitutive modeling of aluminum foam including fracture and statistical variation of density , 2003 .

[16]  Tongxi Yu,et al.  Energy Absorption of Structures and Materials , 2003 .

[17]  O. Hopperstad,et al.  Modeling of material failure in foam-based components , 2004 .

[18]  O. Hopperstad,et al.  Static and dynamic crushing of square aluminium extrusions with aluminium foam filler , 2000 .

[19]  Shaker A. Meguid,et al.  On the crush behaviour of ultralight foam-filled structures , 2004 .

[20]  J. M. Alexander.  AN APPROXIMATE ANALYSIS OF THE COLLAPSE OF THIN CYLINDRICAL SHELLS UNDER AXIAL LOADING , 1960 .

[21]  Tomasz Wierzbicki,et al.  Effect of an ultralight metal filler on the bending collapse behavior of thin-walled prismatic columns , 1999 .