Experimental Axial Crushing Behaviour of Foam-filled Metal and Composite Tubes

Rizal Zahari; Ahmed Salim Saleh AL-Hamdi; John Yban M. Gamboa; Ahmed Younis Salmeen Al Haddabi; John Regan Pillai; Muneer Ahmed Musthaq

Rizal Zahari MILITARY TECHNOLOGICAL COLLEGE
Ahmed Salim Saleh AL-Hamdi
John Yban M. Gamboa
Ahmed Younis Salmeen Al Haddabi
John Regan Pillai
Muneer Ahmed Musthaq

Abstract

The paper presents the experimental investigation on the structural performance of a steel and composite tubes made of unidirectional glass fiber reinforced epoxy and bidirectional carbon fiber reinforced epoxy of subjected to a quasi-static axial compression load. Both composite laminated structures were fabricated through a hand layup followed by a vacuum bagging process. On the other hand, the typical hollow and foam filled mild steel tubes were also fabricated and tested for comparison purposes. A series of quasi-static axial compression tests were then carried out for six different tube configurations using the universal testing machine (UTM). From the experimental results, it was revealed that the foam-filled bidirectional carbon fibre tubes possessed the highest specific energy absorption (SEA) and the highest crush load efficiency (CLE) values as compared with the foam filled unidirectional glass and mild steel tubes.

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