Energy absorption properties of composite sandwich tubes with pre-folded cores

Composite sandwich tubes have been widely used in aviation and automobile industries due to their high specific mechanical properties. This paper presents an experimental and numerical study on the energy absorption properties of composite sandwich tubes with pre-folded core (CSTPC) based on the full-diamond origami pattern. The CSTPC specimens were fabricated using the hot-press and vacuum-bag molding methods. Axial compression tests were carried out to obtain the mechanical properties of CSTPC with and without the inversion cap. The experiment results showed that CSTPCs with the inversion cap exhibit impressive energy absorption properties. Secondly, the FE modelling method for CSTPC with the inversion cap was developed and validated with the experiment data. An extensive parametric study on CSTPCs with various CSTPC geometries, wall thickness and composite layups and geometries of the inversion cap was conducted. Moreover, CSTPC was compared to the stand-alone straight or pre-folded composite tube and composite sandwich tube with corrugated core. The results showed that CSTPC possesses better energy absorption performance than the stand-alone tubes or the tube with corrugated core.

Automated summary

This paper presents an experimental and numerical study on the energy absorption properties of composite sandwich tubes with pre-folded core (CSTPC) based on the full-diamond origami pattern. The results show that CSTPC with the inversion cap exhibits impressive energy absorption properties. Through a parametric study on different geometries and compositions, it is found that CSTPC possesses better energy absorption performance than stand-alone tubes or tubes with corrugated core.