Computational Analysis on the Lateral Deformation Characteristics of Aluminum Tubes with Wavy Stiffeners

Light-weight thin-walled shells have been generally employed in impact energy dissipation applications, to enhance the crashworthiness characteristics of the component and to reduce the impact force through continuous plastic folds. The comprehensive practice of using circular tubular sections as impact energy absorbers is due to their better collapse behaviour, ease of fabrication, cheap cost, and light-weight ability. The present research article investigates the lateral deformation behaviour of thin-walled cylindrical tubes with wavy stiffeners using numerical simulations. These non-linear impact simulations were performed on the tubes using ABAQUS/CAE explicit code. From the overall outcomes attained, the crashworthiness performance of cylindrical tubes of various wavy stiffeners were related. Furthermore, cylindrical tube of fourth type were renowned as most potential for superior energy absorption.