Numerical simulation of axial crushing of circular tubes

Abstract EN

Results are reported for both an experimental study and a finite element analysis of elastic-plastic circular steel tubes subjected to quasi-static axial impact loadings.

Details of the deformation processes are examined using 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional FE models.

Typical histories of deformation of single and parallel steel tubes and their load-compression curves are presented.

Good agreement is reported between the FE force histories of tubes with those obtained experimentally.

Using the 3-D model, D/t of 82, the tube deformation transforms from concertina mode to diamond mode, whereas the 2-D model deforms in a concertina mode for all values of D/t ratio.

For parallel tubes, it is shown that load-carrying capacity is apparently not equal to the sum of the load-carrying capacities of each tube acting alone.