Energy absorption characteristics and enhancement design of FRP thin-walled circular structures

The fiber-reinforced plastic (FRP) has attracted growing attention in the fields of rail transportation and aerospace due to its high specific strength, high specific energy absorption and superior designability, which could be used for replacing conventional metallic materials to realize structural lightweight design. In this paper, the energy absorption characteristics and reinforcement design of FRP thin-walled circular structures were systematically investigated. The design and evaluation of various thin-walled energy absorbers were conducted by combining the experimental characterization, analytical modeling and finite element (FE) analysis.