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

• Published in: Journal of mechanical science and technology Vol. 35; no. 11; pp. 4815 - 4823
• Main Authors: Xie, Z. Y., Zhao, Z. X., Li, C.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Seoul Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers 01.11.2021; Springer Nature B.V; 대한기계학회
• Subjects: Configurations; Control; Crashworthiness; Cross-sections; Dynamical Systems; Energy absorption; Engineering; Finite element method; Impact strength; Industrial and Production Engineering; Mechanical Engineering; Original Article; Tubes; Vibration; 기계공학; Three-point bending; Bending crashworthiness; Multi-cell tube; Thin-walled structure; Double tube
• ISSN: 1738-494X; 1976-3824
• DOI: 10.1007/s12206-021-1001-6

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.