The Behavior of Thin-walled Aluminum Circular Tube Due to Changes in Ratio of Diameter to Thickness (D/t) Subjected to High-velocity Impact

Abstract Thin wall structures in various geometrical shapes are widely used in many applications of energy absorbers. A steel impactor collides with the thin-walled aluminum alloy tube in an axial direction at 40 m / s high velocity. The cylinder tube responds well when subjected to dynamic axial loads due to its ability to absorb impact energy by converting kinetic energy to plastic strain energy. In this study, we changed the ratio of diameter to thickness (D/t) by a fixed cross-sectional area of 317 mm 2 . The research results modeled by finite element analysis (FEA) show that the larger the D/t ratio, the larger the maximum deformation. The reaction forces obtained by specimens are relatively constant. The maximum energy absorbed by the models is the same as the absorbed kinetic energy, but the higher the D/t ratio, the longer the time required for the energy absorption process. The collapse mode indicates that with the increasing D/t ratio, the collapse mode was changed from axisymmetric to non-axisymmetric. The energy absorption response of cylinder tubes is highly affected by the D/t ratio. This study’s results will be considered when constructing a high-velocity impact energy absorption system.