Axial crushing behaviors of multi-cell tubes with triangular lattices

To enhance the energy absorbing ability of thin-walled structures, multi-cell tubes with triangular and Kagome lattices were designed and manufactured. Quasi-static axial compression experiments were carried out to reveal the progressive collapse mode and folding mechanism of thin-walled multi-cell tubes. Combining with the experiments, deformation styles were revealed and classical plastic models were suggested to predict the mean crushing forces of multi-cell tubes. Compared with anti-crushing behaviors of single-cell tubes, multi-cell lattice tubes have comparable peak loads while much greater mean crushing forces, which indicates that multi-cell lattice tubes are more weight efficient in energy absorption. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.