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Bending crashworthiness of thin-walled square tubes with multi-cell and double-tube cross-sections

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Abstract

For structural bending crashworthiness, previous studies mostly focused on thin-walled tubes with multi-cell cross-sections, while the double-tube configuration was seldom studied. In this paper, the bending crashworthiness of thin-walled tubes with multi-cell and double-tube configurations was compared based on three-point bending tests conducted using the ABAQUS/Explicit code. The numerical results reveal that the reinforcements significantly improve the bending crashworthiness beyond the conventional empty tube according to the two indicators: specific energy absorption (SEA) and crash load efficiency (CLE). For the ratio of cross-sectional width to wall thickness b/t = 100, the double-tube configuration has a similar bending crashworthiness performance to the multi-cell configuration. The asymmetric multi-cell configurations are found to demonstrate more excellent SEA performance than their symmetric counterparts in most cases. For the case b/t = 50, the double-tube configuration significantly prevails over the multi-cell configuration.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by University Natural Science Research Project of Anhui Province (No. KJ2018A0481) and National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 11972240), which are gratefully acknowledged.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Architectural Engineering, Tongling University, Tongling, 244061, Anhui, China

    Z. Y. Xie

  2. Department of Vehicle Engineering, School of Rail Transportation, Soochow University, Suzhou, 215131, Jiangsu, China

    Z. X. Zhao & C. Li

Authors
  1. Z. Y. Xie
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  2. Z. X. Zhao
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  3. C. Li
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to C. Li.

Additional information

Z. Y. Xie is a Professor at the School of Architectural Engineering, Tongling University, Tongling, China. He received his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from University of Science and Technology of China. His research interests include structural design, anti-impact performance of lightweight structures.

Z. X. Zhao is a postgraduate student at the School of Rail Transportation, Soochow University, Suzhou, China. His research fields include structural mechanics, dynamics of track foundation and vehicle dynamics and control.

C. Li is a Professor at the School of Rail Transportation, Soochow University, Suzhou, China. He received his Ph.D. in Engineering Mechanics from Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering, City University of Hong Kong. His research interests include structural mechanics, nonlinear vibration of engineering structures, and vehicle dynamics and control.

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Xie, Z.Y., Zhao, Z.X. & Li, C. Bending crashworthiness of thin-walled square tubes with multi-cell and double-tube cross-sections. J Mech Sci Technol 35, 4815–4823 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-021-1001-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-021-1001-6

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