Effect of Corner Bluntness on Energy Absorbing Capability of Non-circular Metallic Tubes Subjected to Axial Impact

The energy absorbing capability is one of the most important aspects of crushing behavior of a structure subjected to axial impact. In this paper, a simple practical method is introduced to enhance the crushingbehavior of this kind of structure. The dynamic explicit simulation of axial impact of metallic energyabsorbing thin-walled tubes with special shaped cross-section is provided using LS-DYNA software. The effect of change in the corners bluntness of non-circular tubes on their energy absorbing capability has been studied. Moreover, the mean crushing force, the maximum deformation, and the mass specific energyabsorption (MSEA) of the tubes were compared. Results show that the energy absorbing capability can be significantly improved by choosing proper bluntness of the corners for quasi-triangle- and quasi-square shaped tubes. Furthermore, results show an improvement in the energy absorbing capability of quasisquare shaped tubes even in comparison with circular one

Keywords:

Axial Impact , Thin-walled Tubes , Energy Absorbing , Bluntness , Non-circular