Theoretical and numerical investigation of mean crushing load of uniform and non-uniform multi-cell tube

Multi-cell tube have been proven to have better energy absorption performance than conventional thin-walled tube. The mean crushing load and wavelength of multi-cell tube were investigated in this paper. Numerical simulation was carried out firstly and the numerical values of mean crushing loads were employed to validate two existing theories. The numerical wavelengths of walls in multi-cell tube were compared with natural wavelengths and good agreement was achieved. A theory aimed at predicting the mean crushing load of uniform and non-uniform multi-cell tube was developed and verified to have high prediction accuracy.

Automated summary

This paper investigates the energy absorption performance of multi-cell tubes and develops a method for predicting the mean crushing load through numerical simulation and theoretical validation.