Thin walled beams with sinusoidal embedded patterns under deep bending collapse

Adding complex sinusoidal patterns on wall surfaces has been recently suggested in literature as an effective innovation for improving energy dissipation of thin walled box beams during axial collapses. This paper studies the energy absorption efficiency and performance of patterned beams under pure bending. A numerical investigation is carried out using commercially available Marc Mentat™ solver and the investigation is also verified using existing analytical models. Five different types of patterns are tested. The result of adding patterns on individual and combination of walls and the effect of progressive triggering proposed previously in literature on the maximum bending moment of the beam is also studied. Results indicate that the beams with sinusoidal patterns are significantly better in energy absorption in deep bending collapse; an increase of about 53.49% at 0.6 rad is noted in the optimal case. The pattern types which had higher energy absorption in axial impact reflect the same trend in bending collapses. This research may further endorse the viability of using sinusoidal patterned beams in mainstream practical applications.