Improving the crashworthiness of magnesium AZ31 by tapering and triggering

摘要

Magnesium is the structural metal with the lowest density and hence a perfect lightweight material. This research investigates the crashworthiness of triggered and non-triggered welded tubes made of AZ31. Therefore, drop tower tests were performed to observe the crashworthiness under axial impact load. An improved crashworthiness was observed by using a trigger at the top end. The reached specific energy absorption is about 78 kJ/kg and similar to aluminum. For the first time, the tapering principle was investigated with tubes made of magnesium in an analytical, experimental and numerical way. It is shown that tapering works with a low degree of deformation.