Crashworthiness of functionally graded and bio-inspired tubes

Lightweight structures are material-efficient, environmentally-friendly, and have been extensively used in various applications including cars, trains, ships and planes. These structures are expected to possess good energy absorption performance in service to protect either human from being injured or structural components from being damaged. Thin-walled circular, square and hexagonal tubes have been considered as good energy absorbers over the past several decades. However, their energy absorption capacity can be further improved. Therefore, this work is dedicated to developing and investigating thin-walled tubes with enhanced crashworthiness.