Effect of fiber orientation angle on the energy absorption characteristics of composite tubes

Abstract EN

The purpose of the paper is to present a study of the effect of the ply orientation angle on the crushing behavior, energy absorption, specific energy absorption, and failure mode of woven glass fiber / polyester laminated composite tube.

Glasspolyester tubular specimens with circular cross-sectional geometry and (+45˚ / -45˚/ + 60˚ / -30˚ / 90) fiber orientation angles were fabricated and crushed by quasistatic test under the same condition to examine the energy absorption characteristics and to calculate the crashworthiness parameters.

The loaddisplacement curves of the tested tubes were presented and described ; several failure modes of the crushed tubes were observed and discussed.

It has been found that the fiber orientation angle has a considerable effect on the crushing characteristic of the collapsed tubes and the failure mode, and (0° / 90°) fiber orientation angle tubes exhibit the highest SEA (specific energy absorption) 33.108 kJ / kg, crush force efficiency (0.7), crush strain relation (0.81) and a Load / deformation curve closer to the ideal curve than the other specimens.