Crashworthiness Performance of Al6061 Tubes with Stiffened Quatrefoil Sections under Axial and Oblique Impact Conditions

Authors : İbrahim KOCABAŞ, Haluk YILMAZ

Pages : 23-40

Doi:10.46399/muhendismakina.1085172

View : 28 | Download : 9

Publication Date : 2021-12-10

Article Type : Research Paper

Abstract :This study presents the crashworthiness performance of Al6061 tubes with stiffened quatrefoil sections under axial and oblique impact conditions. Influences of different types of stiffeners through the depth of tubes in the design of a quatrefoil sectional crash absorber structure are investigated, numerically. Four types of stiffener patterns are considered under oblique impact angles of 0º, 10º, 20º, and 30º measured from the horizontal axis. Force-displacement characteristics, deformation patterns, and crashworthiness indexes of the tested tubes are given to decide optimal crash absorber configuration. The numerical tube models are placed between two rigid plates and an axial impact speed of 1m/s is considered in the numerical study. Al6061 series aluminum alloy is used as a tube material with a multi-linear material model assuming strain-rate independent properties. It is found that the crashworthiness performance is very sensitive to impact angle and Q-S-4 type stiffeners can be proposed for a better tube design.
Keywords : Crashworthiness performance, oblique impact, quatrefoil section, stiffener, finite element method

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