Effect of anisotropy, kinematic hardening, and strain-rate sensitivity on the predicted axial crush response of hydroformed aluminium alloy tubes

There exists considerable motivation to reduce vehicle weight through the adoption of lightweight materials while maintaining energy absorption and component integrity under crash conditions. Aluminium and magnesium alloys, advanced high-strength steels, and composites are all proposed candidates for replacing mild steel in automotive structures. It was of particular interest to study the crash behaviour of lightweight tubular hydroformed structures. Thus, the current research has studied the dynamic crush response of hydroformed Al–Mg–Mn aluminium alloy tubes using both experimental and numerical methods. The research focused on axial crush structures that are designed to absorb crash energy by progressive axial folding. The main experimental parameter that was varied during the hydroforming process was the corner-fill radius of the tube. Numerical studies were carried out using explicit dynamic finite element models incorporating advanced constitutive material models to capture the measured forming and crash history. A constitutive model was implemented in the finite element models combining the Johnson–Cook strain-rate sensitivity model, a non-linear isotropic-kinematic hardening model, and the Yld2000-2d anisotropic model. Each effect was isolated, and it was shown that strain-rate sensitivity slightly increased the energy absorption capabilities while kinematic hardening and anisotropy effects decreased the energy absorption capabilities during axial crush. When including all three effects, the predicted energy absorption was less than the response predicted from simulations performed using the von Mises yield criterion and in reasonable agreement with measured data. It is recommended that a combined constitutive model be utilized for the study of materials that show sensitivity to the Bauschinger effect, strain-rate effects, and anisotropy.