Numerical investigation of the axial impact loading behaviour of single, double and stiffened circular tubes

摘要

Thin-walled circular tubes are good in energy absorption and also light in weight. Energy absorption and deformation modes of these tubes depend on the geometry of the structure. Energy absorption can further be enhanced by implementing improved geometrical configurations. In the present investigation, an attempt is made to improve the energy absorption of thin concentric cylindrical tubes by replacing the inner tube with half cylindrical shells acting as stiffeners along the circumference of the external tube. The tubes have been test simulated under impact loading and their deformation and energy absorption is studied in view of bottoming-out and energy absorption effectiveness factor. The total mass of the stiffened and double tubes is kept identical for the purpose of comparison. It is found that energy absorption capacity of the double tube is 1.71 times higher than the single tube and for stiffened tube, it is 1.91 times higher than the single tube configuration. Moreover, energy absorption effectiveness factor is found to be 1.69 times higher for double and 1.89 times higher for stiffened tubes in comparison with the single tube configuration. Further, it is concluded that provision of longitudinal stiffeners results in higher energy absorption with higher energy absorption effectiveness factor for stiffened tube configurations in comparison with the single and double tube configurations. Further, it is found that provision of stiffeners influences the deformation modes considerably.