Study on the axial impact of Al‐CFRP thin‐walled tubes with induced design

• Published in: Polymer composites Vol. 43; no. 7; pp. 4660 - 4686
• Main Authors: Zha, Yi‐bin, Wang, Shun, Ma, Qi‐hua, Zhang, Hui, Xue‐hui, Zhou, Tian‐jun
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Hoboken, USA John Wiley & Sons, Inc 01-07-2022; Blackwell Publishing Ltd
• Subjects: Aluminum; Al‐CFRP hybrid tube; Configurations; COPRAS method; Crashworthiness; crushing impact; Design optimization; Design parameters; Diameters; Impact strength; induced configuration design; Mathematical models; Structural design; Thickness; Tubes
• ISSN: 0272-8397; 1548-0569
• DOI: 10.1002/pc.26720

Metal‐composite hybrid thin‐walled tube has been widely studied due to its excellent lightweight characteristics and crashworthiness. In particular, there are few reports on the research and design of induced metal‐composite thin‐walled tubes under axial impact. Therefore, the crashworthiness of different induced Al‐CFRP tubes was studied in this article by combining experimental and numerical simulation subjected to axial impact. The experimental results showed that the reasonable induced design is helpful to improve the crashworthiness of Al‐CFRP hybrid tubes. Based upon the experimental tests and numerical modeling, the crashworthiness of the induced Al/CFRP tube was explored. Thereafter, the influence of structural parameters (CFRP fiber winding Angle, ratio of aluminum tube thickness to CFRP tube thickness) on the crashworthiness of induced Al‐CFRP tube was investigated numerally, and the structural parameters were optimized by multi‐objective design to obtain the optimal structural design parameters. And then the parametric study was carried out for exploring the effects of the hole diameter and hole number on the crushing behaviors of Al‐CFRP hybrid tubes. Finally, a new multi‐row induced structure was proposed. All multi‐row induced configurations were evaluated by Complex Proportional Assessment Method (COPRAS), and the best induced configuration (C20 tube) was determined. Compared with the single‐row induced structure with the best crashworthiness, the SEA, Fmean, and CFE of the C20 tube increased by 4.41%, 5.24%, and 10.94%, respectively, and the Fmax of the C20 tube decreased by 6.59%.
The crashworthiness of induced Al‐CFRP thin‐walled tubes under axial impact was studied and designed. The work in this article can provide guidance for the design of induced energy absorber under impact loading.