Energy absorption capability of carbon fiber reinforced plastic tubes with semi-circle grooved external trigger

Abstract

For the purpose of improving the energy absorption performance of capped carbon fiber reinforced plastic tubes, a semi-circle grooved crush-cap is proposed and a series of experiments and improvements has been conducted. Tubes, which are respectively built by carbon fiber laminate and carbon fiber woven cloth, with semi-circle grooved crush-caps, combined (notched-end and crush-cap) failure mechanisms were investigated to identify the optimal configuration that would result in the most stable initial peak load while providing the highest possible specific energy absorption. Experimental results show that the new crush-caps lower the initial load, effectively yielding a high specific energy absorption. These results are significantly influenced by the semi-circle radii of the crush-caps. Furthermore, two failure modes have been observed in tests by changing the external trigger and tube material. The failure mode changes from splaying mode to fragmentation mode with the decrease of radii. The combined failure triggers proved the reduction in the initial load without smoothing the load-displacement curve, therefore, they reduce the energy absorption capability of carbon fiber reinforced plastic tubes. In our experiments, the tested tube which is made by T300/5208 woven cloth with R3 trigger is ground into powder, resulting in an specific energy absorption as high as 101.7 kJ/kg also with a smooth load-displacement curve.

Energy Absorption Capability of Axially Compressed Woven Natural Ramie/Green Epoxy Square Composite Tubes

“…14 The crushing process of the metallic tubes is a plastic deformation process. 15 Ramie epoxy square composite tubes exhibited ductile deformation in the compression test, and there was no debris split after crushing, which could be the result of high elongation property of ramie fibers. The same phenomenon was observed in previous research by Eshkoor et al.…”

“…14 The crushing process of the metallic tubes is a plastic deformation process. 15 Ramie epoxy square composite tubes exhibited ductile deformation in the compression test, and there was no debris split after crushing, which could be the result of high elongation property of ramie fibers. The same phenomenon was observed in previous research by Eshkoor et al 16 In general, the unstable mid-length buckling and local buckling were the observed failure modes during the compression tests, which are affected geometrically in terms of the lengths of the composite tubes.…”

Crashworthy design and energy absorption mechanisms for helicopter structures: A systematic literature review

“…The hybrid tube can absorb more kinetic energy than the individual tubes owing to the positive interaction between the CFRP tube and the aluminum tube. Tong et al [77,78] developed an innovative chamfer external trigger (Fig. 7c) to make the composite materials fully crushed in the event of a crash.…”

“…7. Composite tube energy absorption devices: (a) Crushing process of composite tubes; (b) A specially designed platen with cutting blades [74,75]; (c) A chamfer external trigger [77,78]; (d) A crash absorber integrated in composite structures [79].…”

Axial Response of Hemp-Fiber Composite Tube under Quasi-Static Compression and Impact Crushing

“…The benefit is to reduce the impact energy of a crash on occupants. Various geometries of metal and composite materials such as circular, square and conical have been tested to evaluate their energy absorption capability (Farley and Jones, 1989;Mamalis et al, 1997;Huang and Wang, 2009;Ataollahi et al, 2012;Tong et al, 2016;Yang et al, 2017). Composite materials reinforced by glass fiber and carbon fiber composites have been used in vehicle construction, because of their energy absorption potential which is comparable to that of metal structures (Ramakrishna, 1997).…”