Quasi-static axial crushing of extruded polystyrene foam-filled thin-walled aluminum tubes:: Experimental and numerical analysis

The experimental and numerical quasi-static crushing responses of extruded closed cell polystyrene foam-filled thin-walled aluminum tubes were investigated. The numerical crash analysis of empty and foam-filled tubes was performed using the explicit finite element code PAM-CRASH(TM). Satisfactory agreements were generally achieved between the finite element model and experimental deformed shapes, load-displacements, fold lengths and specific energy absorptions. The model and experiments have also highlighted the several effects of foam filling on the crushing of thin-walled tubes. The energy absorptions in foam-filled tubes were further shown to be higher than the sum of the energy absorptions of empty tube (alone) and filler (alone). (C) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.