Robustness study on the behaviour of top-hat thin-walled high-strength steel sections subjected to axial crushing

A robustness study on the behaviour of top-hat thin-walled high-strength steel sections from different batches subjected to dynamic axial crushing has been performed. The robustness was investigated by considering 25 components produced from five different material batches. The variation of material properties within and between the batches was characterised by use of tensile tests. A 3D scanner was used in order to study the geometric imperfections of the profiles. The components were crushed in a kicking machine at an impact velocity of 10 m/s with an impacting mass of 985 kg. Fracture was observed in all the components, but the extent of fracture varied from batch to batch and seemed to be positively correlated to the material strength and negatively correlated to the material ductility. The mean force varied significantly within each batch, while the variation in the batch mean of the mean force was relatively small compared to the variations in the batch means of the material strength and thickness.