Lateral Crushing of Square Aluminium Tubes Filled with Different Cores

Thin-walled tubular structures are widely used in industries such as automotive, aerospace and military because of their lightweight and excellent performance under different loading conditions. This study aimed to investigate the lateral crushing performance of square aluminium tubes filled with different cores (honeycomb, polyurethane foam and mixed of these two fillers). Different failure modes of tested structures have been observed and they are progressive failure with plastic hinges formed in the middle of the tube wall, cracks at the corners of some tested tubes and fractures in the mixed foam and honeycomb core. Results show that the lateral crushing performance of aluminium tubes was significantly improved when using mixed filler (honeycomb and foam). The average load, energy dissipation and specific energy absorption of mixed core filled tubes increased up to 638%, 451% and 177% respectively when compared to those for hollow tubes.