Dynamic buckling of elastic–plastic square tubes under axial impact—II: structural response

Dynamic elastic–plastic buckling of thin-walled square tubes is studied from the viewpoint of elastic–plastic stress wave propagation, which originates from an axial impact loading. The influence of the impact velocity and the striking mass on the development of the buckling shape is discussed when considering the transient deformation process. It is shown that the maximum load, which results from a high velocity impact load and occurs at t=0, is a function of the impact velocity and is related to the speed of the elastic–plastic stress waves propagating along the tube. The predictions for the initiation of buckling based on a numerical simulation of the axial impact of strain rate insensitive square tubes using the FE code ABAQUS show good agreement with the results from experiments on aluminium alloy tubes impacted at various initial velocities. A comparison between the buckling initiation in square tubes and geometrically equivalent circular tubes reveals differences in the response, which are attributed to the stress wave propagation phenomena and to the structural differences between the two structures.