Experimental investigation of bitubal circular energy absorbers under quasi-static axial load

In this article, bitubal circular energy absorbers consist of two AL-6063-O tubes with unequal diameters placed coaxially and compressed under quasi-static axial load are studied experimentally. The effects of diameter and wall-thickness of each tube and the interaction between two tubes on the crashworthiness parameters are investigated in detail. In order to reduce the high value of peak load induced in the bitubal absorbers, two worthwhile solutions are proposed. The first one is to use two tubes with different lengths and the other one is to cut groove at the end portion of one of the tubes. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.