The Open Materials Science Journal

2011, 5 : 184-193
Published online 2011 October 04. DOI: 10.2174/1874088X01105010184
Publisher ID: TOMSJ-5-184

Quasi-Static Axial Crushing Behavior of Honeycomb-Filled Thin-Walled Aluminum Tubes

Levent Aktay , Cem Cakıroglu and Mustafa Guden
Department of Mechanical Engineering and Center for Materials Research, Izmir Institute of Technology. Gulbahce Koyu, Urla, Izmir 35430, Turkey.

ABSTRACT

The experimental and numerical quasi-static crushing behaviors of Nomex™ honeycomb-filled thin-walled Al tubes were investigated. The honeycomb filler was modeled using a unit cell model. The numerical model and experimental results have shown that, 6.4 mm and 4.8 mm cell size honeycomb filling had no effect on the deformation mode (diamond); however 3.2 mm cell size honeycomb filling changed the deformation mode to mixed/concertina. Honeycomb filling was also shown to increase the specific energy absorption of filled tubes over that of Al tube. The specific energy absorption of honeycomb filling was further compared with those of tube wall thickening and Al closedcell foam filling.