Offshore structures are exposed to risks of vessel collisions and impacts from dropped objects. Tubular members are extensively used in offshore construction, and thus, there is scope to investigate their crashworthiness behaviour. Aluminium, glass fibre reinforced polymer (GFRP) and hybrid aluminium/GFRP circular tube specimens were fabricated and then tested under quasi-static and dynamic axial loading conditions. Two hybrid configurations were examined: external and internal layers from respectively aluminium and GFRP, and vice versa. The material impregnated with epoxy resin woven glass fabric was allowed to cure attached to the aluminium layer to ensure interlayer bonding. The quasi-static and dynamic tests were conducted using respectively a universal testing machine at a prescribed crosshead speed of 10 mm/min, and a 78 kg drop hammer released from 2.5 m. The non-hybrid configurations (aluminium and GFRP specimens) outperformed their hybrid counterparts in terms of crashworthiness characteristics.
The current work studied the crashworthiness behavior of thin-walled circular steel tubes against axial and oblique crushing. Parametric analyses of crushing angle and tube wall thickness were conducted aiming to identify their effect on dissipated energy, collapse initiation and deformation stability. Quasi-static experiments and finite element (FE) simulations in LS-DYNA were implemented for crushing angle parametric analysis, while the wall thickness effect was studied numerically for the same loading angle range. Both experiments and simulations revealed that an increase in crushing angle results in lower energy absorption (EA) and peak force. Low-angled oblique loading was indicated as the most efficient impact condition reaching sufficient EA and facilitating plastic collapse initiation. The occurrence of global bending mode revealed a critical loading angle value reacting to a significant EA drop due to unstable plastic deformation. Finally, higher wall thickness resulted in greater peak force and increased critical angle reacting to a smoother EA decrease with respect to loading angle by preventing unstable deformation mode.
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