Deformation and energy absorption properties of cenosphere-aluminum syntactic foam-filled tubes under axial compression

The cenosphere-aluminum syntactic foam-filled tubes were prepared by inserting aluminum matrix syntactic foam which is reinforced with cenospheres whose average particle sizes are different (150 mu m, 200 mu m and 300 mu m) into empty steel tubes. Quasi-static axial compression tests were conducted on empty steel tubes, cenosphere-aluminum syntactic foam filler and cenosphere-aluminum syntactic foam-filled tubes. Based on the experimental results, numerical simulation was carried out to investigate the effects of the thickness of the tube wall and the type of filler on crushing behaviour of cenosphere-aluminum syntactic foam-filled tubes. It has been shown that the tube wall can effectively restrain the syntactic foam filler and improve the plastic deformation ability of the specimen. In addition, the interaction between the two can significantly improve the bearing capacity of the foam-filled tube. The height of the specimen has little effect on its peak stress, while a large height to-diameter ratio may cause instability, which is not conducive to the energy absorption of the specimen. The increase of the tube wall thickness is beneficial to increase the specific energy absorption of the foam-filled tube.

Automated summary

In this study, the performance and influencing factors of cenosphere-aluminum syntactic foam-filled tubes in compression tests were investigated, revealing the restraining effect of the tube wall on the filler and the impact of tube wall thickness on specific energy absorption. The interaction between the tube wall and filler was found to enhance the load-bearing capacity and plastic deformation ability of the syntactic foam-filled tubes.