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Numerical Investigation of Stepped Concentric

Crash Tubes Subjected to Axial Impact : The
Effects of Number of Tubes
CONFERENCE PAPER JUNE 2015

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Numerical Investigation of Stepped Concentric

Crash Tubes Subjected to Axial Impact : The Effects
of Number of Tubes
Fatih Usta

Zana Eren

Istanbul Technical University

Faculty of Aeronautics and Astronautics
Maslak, Istanbul, 34469, Turkey
ustaf@itu.edu.tr

Istanbul Technical University

Faculty of Aeronautics and Astronautics
Maslak, Istanbul, 34469, Turkey
erenza@itu.edu.tr

Halit S. Trkmen

Zafer Kazanc

Istanbul Technical University

Faculty of Aeronautics and Astronautics
Maslak, Istanbul, 34469, Turkey
halit@itu.edu.tr

Aerospace Engineering Department

Turkish Air Force Academy
Yesilyurt, Istanbul, Turkey
z.kazanci@hho.edu.tr

Zahit Mecitolu
Istanbul Technical University
Faculty of Aeronautics and Astronautics
Maslak, Istanbul, 34469, Turkey
mecit@itu.edu.tr
published by WHO [1]. Crash tubes have an important role to
reduce harmful effects of accidents. Numerous studies have
been done to enhance the crashworthiness characteristics of
crash tubes at dynamic and quasi-static velocities.

AbstractThe purpose of this study is to examine the energy

absorption characteristics of stepped concentric crash tubes
subjected to an axial impact load. The stepped concentric tubes
with circular cross section are analyzed numerically by using LSDYNA. The total mass and volume are kept constant when the
number of tubes is increased. As the number of concentric tubes
is increased, it is observed a smooth transition of the peak forces
during the impact. Also increasing the number of tubes reduces
the maximum peak force and leads to a reduction of the initial
peak force due to lower wall thickness of the tubes.

In space, vehicles might be subjected to impact of

meteoroids and debris particles or the loads acting during
landing. Design of spacecraft shield gains more importance for
protection of spacecrafts structural integrity and crews
health. Researchers generally focus on hypervelocity impact
phenomenon due to being more common encountered
problem. Bashurov et al. investigated the effects of debris
impact to the spacecraft shield in between 500-6500 m/s
velocity using numerical and experimental methods [2].
Various mass and dimensions of debris are tested, analyzed
and obtained good agreement between experimental and
numerical results. Taylor et al. test some samples of primary
external wall structure which are exposed to the hypervelocity
impact and search the ballistic limit of 47 mm thick structure
[3]. They demonstrate that ballistic limit depends on not only
impact energy but also projectile density.

Keywordscrash tubes, impact loading, crashworthiness,

energy absorption, peak force

I.

INTRODUCTION

Impact phenomenon can be encountered in many field

such as automobile accident, debris impact on spacecraft
vehicle, impact on a protection shield, etc. Because of having
various types of this phenomenon, researchers have tried
several ways to take precaution and reduce its harmful effects
on people and vehicles. Traffic accidents kill an estimated
1.27 million people per a year globally according to a report

There are several studies based on experiences of different

geometrical parameters such as thickness and cross section of
the crash box. Yamashita et al. investigate the different types
of polygonal crash boxes and the effects of wall thickness and
plastic hardening rate of material on the crush behavior [4]. As

Support for this work has been provided by the Scientific and
Technological Research Council of Turkey under Project Number 113M395.
(TUBITAK).

978-1-4799-7697-3/15/$31.00 2015 IEEE

39

long as corners of cross-sections increase, these results in

raising crash strength of tube. It is observed apparently at
smaller initial wall thicknesses. Also, strength of circular cross
section is higher than square cross section tubes. Nia and
Hamedani search crashworthiness characteristics of different
geometrical shapes (cylindrical, square, hexagonal, conical,
and hourglass) and different thicknesses (1 and 2 mm) of
composite tubes under quasi-static loading conditions [5].
Conical circular tubes give higher SEA (specific energy
absorption) and Ppeak (peak force) values than the other
standard geometrical profiles. Abramowicz and Jones
investigate the circular and square steel crash tubes under
dynamic and static loading [6], [7]. Karagiozova and Jones
search dynamic effects of cylindrical shells testing different
types of materials numerically to show the influence of the
material properties, shell geometry, boundary conditions and
loading techniques on buckling and energy absorption [8]. It is
shown that the fold length increases with shell thickness.

TABLE I. DIMENSIONS OF SAMPLE 1 AND 2

n=1
Tube
no
1
2
3
4
5
6

r_mean
(mm)

L
(mm)

t
(mm)

r_mean
(mm)

L
(mm)

t
(mm)

6
8
10

30
25
20

1
1
1

5
6
7
8
9
10

30
28
27
25
23
21

0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5

TABLE II. DIMENSIONS OF SAMPLE 3 AND 4

n=3
Tube
no
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12

Steel, aluminum and composite materials are the most

common used materials for crash boxes. Ince et al. investigate
the energy absorption characteristics of hybrid crash tubes
saving of %17.5 for total weight [9]. Fyllingen et al. study
the influence of the element type and formulation for
modeling aluminum profiles under axial loading using LSDYNA and ABAQUS software program [10]. Kazanc and
Bathe show that ADINA based on implicit time integration
method can be a better alternative in such cases of quasi static
impact loading on crash tubes [11]. Ergen investigates the
ideal design of stepped concentric crash tubes. He searches
energy absorption characteristics of crash tubes having
different cross sections (square, circular and hexagonal) [12].
Goel examines the comparison of empty and foam filled single
tubes with bi-tubular and tri-tubular empty and foam filled
tubes. As a result of this examination, it is seen that energy
absorption and final configuration of tubes can be improved
[13].

n=4

r_mean
(mm)

L
(mm)

t
(mm)

r_mean
(mm)

L
(mm)

t
(mm)

6
6.5
7
7.5
8
8.5
9
9.5
10

30
28.5
28
27
26
25
24
23
22.5

0.3
0.3
0.3
0.3
0.3
0.3
0.3
0.3
0.3

4.5
5
5.5
6
6.5
7
7.5
8
8.5
9
9.5
10

30
29.5
29
28.5
28
27
26
25
24
23
22
21

0.25
0.25
0.25
0.25
0.25
0.25
0.25
0.25
0.25
0.25
0.25
0.25

Other sizes are chosen in a way not to change total mass.

Thicknesses of samples are determined as 1, 0.5, 0.3 and 0.25
mm, respectively. Tube lengths are reduced gradually from
interior to exterior. All dimensions of samples are shown in
Table 1 and 2.

The purpose of this study is to examine the energy

absorption characteristics of stepped concentric crash tubes
subjected to an axial impact load. The peak forces and the
total deflection are also investigated. The stepped concentric
tubes considered here have different lengths and different
diameters. However, the total mass and volume are kept
constant. The area of the impacting object is taken as greater
than the maximum tube cross sectional area to prevent passing
the impacting object through the tube hole.
II.

n=2

B. Material Properties
All specimens are made of same material. The material uses
here AL6063 which is a strain rate insensitive material, has
young modulus E= 78 GPa and density =2700 kg/m3.
Material properties are listed in Table 3 and stress-strain curve
shown in Fig. 1 is used to determine the material properties.
Tubes are modeled with MAT024 PIECEWISE LINEAR
PLASTICITY material model in LS-DYNA.

PROBLEM DEFINITION

C. Finite Element Models

It is preferred to use mostly the explicit solver of the
nonlinear finite element code LS-DYNA. So in this study,
numerical analysis is made by using LS-DYNA software
program. All tubes are modeled by using Belytschko-Tsay
shell elements. After comparing the analysis of triple
concentric tubes at different mesh qualities, optimum element
size is defined as 0.4x0.4 mm. The bottom of all tubes is
clamped and a rigid wall is defined 1 mm far from the top of
the longest tube. It is crashed with an initial velocity in the
axial direction. Mass of rigid wall is 100 g, and its initial
velocity is 50 m/s. RIGIDWALL-PLANAR MOVING

A. Problem Definition
The impact analyses of the four different types of stepped
concentric crash tubes are performed. The samples are
enumerated with the number of n=1, 2, 3, 4 which have
three, six, nine and twelve tubes, respectively. To observe the
crashworthiness characteristics of these samples in same
condition, all of them are limited to same total volume and
same total mass. Total mass of the tubes considered here are
9.2033, 9.2075, 9.2049 and 9.2028 g, respectively and total
volumes of four samples are kept constant. Maximum mean
radius is equal to 10 mm and maximum length is 30 mm.

40

TABLE III. MATERIAL PROPERTIES OF AL6063

Density
kg/m3

Young
Modulus
(GPa)

Poison
Ratio

Yield
stress
(MPa)

Ultimate
tensile stress
(MPa)

2700

78

0.33

241

263

Fig. 3. Front and top view of models: a) 3 concentric tube b) 6 concentric tube
c) 9 concentric tube d) 12 concentric tube

Fig. 1. Stress-Strain curve for AL6063

plotted with respect to time in same graphic shown in Fig. 6,

7, 8 and 9. Also, initial peak forces and maximum peak forces
are listed in Table IV. It can be seen that maximum peak
forces decreases and time of analysis takes longer except the
second sample. Maximum peak forces of samples 1 to 4 are
27597, 27699, 21634 and 19358 N, respectively.
Although the first and second values are too close, there are
noticeably reductions between other values. Besides, transition
from one peak force to the next peak force occurs smoother,
while the number of tubes is increased. Difference between
first and second sample can be result from the distances
between tubes of first sample. Because, it is seen that interior
tube of first sample doesnt have contact with the next tube.
On the other hand, all tubes of other three samples can be
attained eachother, so they have surface to surface contact.
Contact algrotihm can bring about these small difference.
In addition to this, Fig. 6,7,8 and 9 give relationship
between initial peak forces which are 10772, 4141, 3171 and
3011 N. There is an appearent reduction between samples. It
can be resulted from the reduction in thicknesses of cross
section.

Fig. 2. Schematic of geometry with an example model and rigid wall

FORCES is used as model of the impactor. An example

schematic for sample 1 and rigid wall are plotted together in
Fig. 2.
In Fig. 3, It can be seen that front and section view of finite
element models of four samples. AUTOMATIC SINGLE
SURFACE contacts are identified for each sample, because
they have possibility of lapping after deformation. Also,
AUTOMATIC SURFACE TO SURFACE contacts are
defined between surfaces of tubes. The static and dynamic
friction coefficients are chosen as 0.2 for each contact
definition.
III.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

The amount of deformation, peak forces and energy

variation during impact are obtained from numerical alaysis in
order to characterize the crash response of the samples.
Appearences of all samples after deformation are
demonstrated in Fig 4. The deflections are 10.5902, 11.6217,
10.5847 and 11.1106 in milimeters and listed in Table IV. The
total deformation is almost obtained same for all samples. The
number of tubes did not effect the total deformation.
Kinetic and internal energy graphics of samples are taken
from LS-DYNA and shown in Fig. 5. Results demonstrate that
almost all kinetic energy is converted into internal energy
which is equal to 125 J. Every sample gives same results due
to partial deformation. The force variation of four samples is

Fig. 4. Isometric, front and top view of all samples after deformation
processes a) n=1, b) n=2, c) n=3 and d) n=4

41

Fig. 6. Force versus time for sample 1

Fig. 7. Force versus time for sample 2

Fig. 8. Force versus time for sample 3

Fig. 5. Kinetic and internal energy of each sample

Fig. 9. Force versus time for sample 4

42

References

TABLE IV. RESULTS

[1]
Velocity
(m/s)

Deflection
(mm)

Impact
Mass
(g)
100

50

100

100

100

10.5902

Initial
Peak Force
(N)
10772

Max. Peak
Force
(N)
27597

50

11.6217

4141

27699

50

10.5847

3171

21634

50

11.1106

3011

19358

IV.

[2]

[3]

CONCLUSION

[4]

In this study, stepped concentric tubes made of AL6063

with circular cross section are analyzed numerically by using
LS-DYNA. Total mass and volume of all samples are
restricted to observe efficiency of crashworthiness properties
such as peak crushing force and energy absorption capability.
To see the energy absorption capability of samples, there is a
need of analysis at higher impact energy.

[5]

[6]

As the number of concentric tubes is increased, it is

observed a smooth transition of the peak forces during the
impact. Also increasing the number of tubes reduces the
maximum peak force and leads to a reduction of the initial
peak force due to lower wall thickness of the tubes. It can
reduce the inertial effect of peak forces on vehicles and
people. These results show that increasing the number of
stepped concentric tubes improves its crashworthiness
properties in terms of peak forces. Furthermore, minimizing
the size of concentric tubes can prevent or reduce the
probability of penetration of impact objects.

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10]

[11]

Acknowledgment
Support for this work has been provided by the Scientific and
Technological Research Council of Turkey under Project
Number 113M395.

[12]

[13]

43

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