Comparison of the lateral crushing response of thin-walled aluminum-thermoplastic polymer composite cylindrical shells

Thin-walled aluminum tubes and Carbon fiber reinforced thermoplastic polymer composite structures have enormous prospective in sustainable impact energy-absorbing structures owing to their lightweight potential and better energy-absorbing capability. Hence, in this current research article, experimental investigations on the lateral crashworthiness behavior and energy absorption characteristics of hybrid aluminum-thermoplastic polymer composite tubular structures were performed under quasi-static loading. Extruded Aluminum tubes of three different diameters (40, 50 and 60 mm) were purchased commercially and various thermoplastic polymer composite based fillers were fabricated through fused deposition modeling (FDM) technique. Detailed experimental studies on the aluminum cylindrical tubes filled with various polymer composite fillers under lateral quasi-static loading have been carried out. The lateral crushing force-deformation histories obtained were analyzed. It is noted that the hybrid tubes absorbed more impact energy than the conventional aluminum cylindrical tubes and polymer composite fillers. Furthermore, it is observed that the maximum energy absorption capacity that could be attained is with a tube with minimum diameter. Finally, it was found that the proposed hybrid tubular structures hold significant promise as energy-absorbing devices, offering appropriate crushing force-deformation characteristics.