Improvement of Energy Absorption of Circular Tubes Subjected to High Velocity Impact

Abstract

The dynamic behavior of circular straight and stepped tubes made of aluminum alloy under high-velocity impacts was investigated by performing finite element analyses (FEA) and an experiment. The FEA and experiment on the straight tubes suggested that while an increase in the impact velocity enhanced the absorbed energy through compressive deformation just after impact, the peak load at the fixed end was not affected by the velocity. A stepped tube that was thicker near the impacted end was designed on the basis of the results for the straight tubes, and its dynamic behavior was investigated through FEA. The stepped tube absorbed a large amount of impact energy through compressive deformation at the thicker portion during the higher-velocity impact, without increasing the maximum fixed-end load from that of the straight tube.