A comparison of bending resistance of square thin-walled tubes with different internal reinforcements

Abstract

Abstract Thin-walled structures with light weight are applied widely in some engineering fields, and thin-walled tubes are liable to local deformation under transverse loading. In the paper, six internal reinforced configurations of square thin-walled tubes were presented and their bending resistance was compared with each other based on finite element analysis by ABAQUS code. The numerical results reveal that the internal reinforcement plays significant role on the bending resistance, and some reinforcing strategies have evident advantage over the empty tube without any reinforcement considering the weight specific energy absorption. In addition, the reinforced configurations have more designability than the ordinary empty tube to obtain more specific energy-absorbing capacity.