Effects of boundary conditions on the energy absorption of thin-walled polymer composite tubes under axial crushing

Polymer composite tubes can be designed to absorb high levels of impact energy by progressive crushing. When a tube is crushed onto a flat platen, energy is absorbed by bending failure of the plies, delamination and friction mechanisms. In the present work, significant increases in energy absorption are shown when a shear mode of failure is initiated by crushing the tube onto a radiused plug (or initiator). A study of plug radius, R, normalised with respect to the tube wall thickness, t, in the range of 0⩽R/t⩽5 for circular tube diameter/thickness ratios of 10<D/t<33 was undertaken with continuous filament random mat glass/polyester composite. Different radii plugs lead to significantly different deformed shapes and crush zone morphologies. Large radius initiators (R/t>2) cause the tubes to split and energy is absorbed primarily through friction and axial splitting. As the initiator radius decreases, the amount of through-thickness shear damage in the fronds increases along with specific energy absorption (SEA). When the plug radius becomes small compared to the wall thickness (R/t<0.75) a debris wedge forms between the initiator and the tube and acts like a larger radius initiator. The highest energy absorption was seen to occur at R/t⩽1 when through-thickness shear damage was induced. In this range, under static loading conditions, SEA was seen to be higher than that for tubes crushed onto a flat platen.