TECHNOLOGICAL ENGINEERING
volume XIV, number 1/2017
AXIAL CRUSHING BEHAVIORS OF THIN-WALLED
CORRUGATED AND CIRCULAR TUBES - A COMPARATIVE
STUDY
Article history:
Received 27.11.2017
Accepted 30.11.2017 1
Available online 1.12.2017 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Integral University, Lucknow, Uttar
Abstract
With the help of finite element analysis, this research
paper deals with the energy absorption and collapse
behavior with different corrugated section geometries of
hollow tubes made of aluminum alloy 6060-T4. Lite-
rature available experimental data were used to validate
the numerical models of the structures investigated.
Based on the results available for symmetric crushing of
circular tubes, models were developed to investigate
corrugated thin-walled structures behavior. To study the
collapse mechanism and energy absorbing ability in axial
compression, the simulation was carried in ABAQUS
/EXPLICIT code. In the simulation part, specimens were
prepared and axially crushed to one-fourth length of the
tube and the energy diagram of crushing force versus
axial displacement is shown. The effect of various
parameters such as pitch, mean diameter, corrugation,
amplitude, the thickness is demonstrated with the help
of diagrams. The overall result shows that the corrugated
section geometry could be a good alternative to the
conventional tubes.
Keywords
Deformation, Energy absorption, Corrugated, Crushing
1 INTRODUCTION
Advancement in technologies has led to high-speed
transportation, automobiles being able to hit 300mph
but contemporaneously the probability of risk of life and
accidents is also increasing. Throughout the years,
vehicles safety have gotten better because of the
advancements in the industry, Protection system and
occupant safety is one of the key issues in transportation
safety and a competitive factor in the market for
automotive industries. The increased interest in auto-
motive safety and crashworthiness in recent decades
have attracted researchers towards hollow tubular
structures specifically circular, square, taper, multi cross-
section, frusta, spherical shells resulting in an extensive
research into the structural response of tubes with
various loading conditions. Among these aluminum alloy
have become increasingly attractive the reason is
twofold. Firstly the weight saving, a very important and
compelling factor is the voice of the customer, with
increasing fuel prices consumers are much sensitive to
the fuel economy and that has become a major factor in
buying a specific vehicle. One pound of aluminum
typically replaces two pounds of ferrous products like
TECHNOLOGICAL ENGINEERING, Volume XIV, number 1/2017, ISSN 1336 - 5967
ISSN 1336 - 5967
DOI: 10.1515/teen-2017-0001
Mohd. Reyaz-Ur-Rahim1 - Dr. P. K. Bharti1 - Afaque Umer1
Pradesh, India
steel or iron, therefore, the use of aluminum is significant
from used only in radiators in the seventies to around
60% of the body today. This has reduced the fuel
consumption resulting in environmental benefit. Secon-
dly, some aluminum alloys are good energy absorbers
during structural impact and the reason why they are
frequently used in bumper beams and crash boxes. The
earliest study on the axial crushing of thin-walled circular
tubes started around 1960s, when Alexander [1] and
Pugsley and Macaulay [2] developed theoretical models
to predict the energy absorption of axially crushed
circular tubes deformed in the axisymmetric mode
(concertina or ring mode) and non- axisymmetric mode
(diamond mode), respectively. In recent decades
different cross-sectional geometries have promoted a lot
of research work in assessing the energy absorption
capacity of the hollow tubular structure. It has been
found that the energy absorption capacity and peak load
is greatly influenced by variations in cross-sectional
shapes [3-6]. Energy absorption of hexagon, octagon, 12-
sided and 16-sided star has been presented by Z.Fan et
al [7]. Crush performance of tubes by combining
geometries was reported by A. Praveen Kumar and
M.Nalla Mohamed [8].Effect of corrugation results in
better control and predictability deformation when
subjected to axial load [9-13]. Influence of functionally
graded corrugation in improving the crashworthy
characteristics of circular tubes was mentioned by D.
Agrawal et al [14]. Corrugated structures show exceedin-
gly anisotropic behavior and high stiffness transverse to
the corrugation direction [15]. The influence of the
degree of amplitude and wavelength of corrugated tubes
on energy absorption (EA) and peak crushing force(PCF)
was reported by Sharad Rawat et al [16].The previous
study reveals that buckling load can be easily enhanced
by changing cross-section from circular to corrugated
[17].The avail of using corrugated cross section is that
with a slight increase in weight there is a significant rise
in peak force and energy absorption over comparable
tubular sections. In the present work, the crushing
behavior and the energy absorption of corrugated and
circular tubes under quasi-static axial loading were
investigated numerically. The explicit finite element code
ABAQUS was used to predict the collapse behavior.The
effect of varying the cross-sectional parameters was
analyzed to understand the collapse behavior and energy
absorption characteristics.
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2 MATERIAL MODEL
The material for the tubular columns was aluminum
alloy AA6060; temper T4 which was assumed to be
homogeneous, isotropic and elastic. No attempt has
been made to measure the modulus of elasticity of alu-
minum alloy and the nominal values of Young's modulus
E = 70 GPa and Poisson’s ratio = 0.33 have been used.
The density of the material was 2.7 g.cm-3. The plasticity
data required for the input of finite element modelling in
Abacus/Explicit between True stress and plastic strain
are shown in fig.1 [18].
The tubular extrusions were modelled using 4-node
shell elements S4R, while the plates were constrained as Figure 1. Engineering stress-strain curve
rigid bodies and were modelled using 4-node 3-D bilinear
rigid elements R3D4. The mesh size of each model was
kept constant by the approximate global size of 4.5.
General contact algorithm was used to simulate the
contact interaction between the tubular extrusion and
both the plates. The bottom plate was fixed by limiting all
the six degrees of freedom to zero, while the upper plate
was a restraint to move only in the vertical direction as
shown in fig. 2 [7] The upper plate was then gradually
displaced to crush the specimen to several folds. For
quasi-static loading condition, the analysis was perfor-
med with a step time of 40 ms. The extrusion length was
taken 400mm and kept constant, while the tubes were
crushed to one-fourth of its length throughout the
analysis.
Figure 2. Finite element numerical model
Table 1
Specimen Mean Dia. Frequency of Pitch Amplitude/ Thickness
(mm) Corrugation (mm) Depth(mm) (mm)
ATMD1 300 13 75 17.5 1.00 Nomenclature
ATMD2 350 13 75 17.5 1.00
ATMD3 400 13 75 17.5 1.00 AT ARC TANGENTCORRUGATED TUBE
ATMD4 450 13 75 17.5 1.00
C CIRCULAR TUBE
ATFC1 300 08 75 17.5 1.00
ATFC2 300 10 75 17.5 1.00 MD MEAN DIAMETER
ATFC3 300 11 75 17.5 1.00
ATFC4 300 13 75 17.5 1.00 FC FREQUENCY OF CORRUGATION

ATPC1 300 11 75 17.5 1.00 PC PITCH OF CORRUGATION

ATPC2 300 11 80 17.5 1.00
ATPC3 300 11 85 17.5 1.00 TT TUBE THICKNESS
ATPC4 300 11 90 17.5 1.00
AC AMPLITUDE OF CORRUGATION
ATTT1 300 13 75 17.5 0.25
ATTT2 300 13 75 17.5 0.50
ATTT3 300 13 75 17.5 0.75
ATTT4 300 13 75 17.5 1.00

ATAC1 300 11 75 17.5 1.00

ATAC2 300 11 75 18.5 1.00
ATAC3 300 11 75 19.5 1.00
ATAC4 300 11 75 20.5 1.00

CMD1 300 - - - 1.00

CMD2 350 - - - 1.00
CMD3 400 - - - 1.00
CMD4 450 - - - 1.00

CTT1 300 - - - 0.25

CTT2 300 - - - 0.50
CTT3 300 - - - 0.75
CTT4 300 - - - 1.00

3 RESULT AND DISCUSSION force and energy absorption of circular as well as

corrugated thin-walled extrusions several parameters
In order to validate the work the simulation results
have been chosen. The parameters varied for the
obtained for circular hollow tube is compared with
analysis are mean diameter and thickness (for both
experimental result[21x]. Further to assimilate the peak
circular and corrugated), the frequency of corrugation,

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pitch & amplitude of corrugation. The parameters are so are inherited from previous papers [17][19]. Thereby in
altered that the perimeter of both kinds of tubes is this section, the consequences of altering cross-section
coequal under all circumstances. Specific geometric geometries have been presented in quasi-static axial
dimensions of these tubes are listed in Table. 1 which loading conditions

Figure 3. Collapse mode for ATMD1,ATMD2,ATMD3 and ATMD4

Figure 4. Collapse mode for CMD1,CMD2,CMD3 and CMD4

Figure 5. Collapse mode for ATFC1,ATFC2,ATFC3 and ATFC4

Figure 6. Collapse mode for ATPC1,ATPC2,ATPC3 and ATPC4

Figure 7. Collpase mode for ATAC1,ATAC2,ATAC3 and ATAC4

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 Figure 8. Collpase mode for ATTT1,ATTT2,ATTT3 and ATTT4

Figure 9. Collapse mode for CTT1, CTT2, CTT3, and CTT4

3.1 Effect of mean diameter with constant corru-

gation
Fig. 3 and Fig. 4 shows the deformation modes
of four numerical model for both corrugated (frequency
of corrugation is 13) and circular tube. By comparing the
collapse behavior it is found from the numerical result
that the corrugated tube gives much good result in
comparison with circular tubes. From Table.2 the result
shows the increase in mean diameter the energy
absorption and peak force decreases for the corrugated
tube whereas it increases in case of a circular tube, but
still corrugated tubes give higher values of energy
absorption, peak force and mean peak force with the
correspondent diameter of a circular tube. The
deformation starts from the top of the tube for all
numeric models of CMD. In case of ATMD2 and ATMD3,
the buckling initiates progressively from the top of the
tube while ATMD1 and ATMD4 show the entirely different
behavior as their collapse starts from the lower portion of
the tube. The force-displacement curve for both the
tubes is presented in Figs. 8a and 8b (ATMD and CMD
respectively). It is found that the ATMD1 despites to all
parametric variations it has the most energy absorption,
peak force and means peak force.

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 ATTT1 812.5086 16.318 8.125
ATTT2 2486.378 69.867 25.029
ATTT3 4303.183 117.191 43.211
ATTT4 7520.194 167.413 75.215
ATAC1 4609.4 114.482 46.113
ATAC2 4536.335 114.485 45.38
ATAC3 4544.982 114.482 45.459
ATAC4 4552.772 114.476 45.505
CMD1 1656.133 39.976 16.56
CMD2 1679.959 39.328 16.795
CMD3 1679.282 31.236 16.791
CMD4 1878.099 46.92 18.776
CTT1 165.878 3.246 1.658
CTT2 484.6335 10.342 4.847
CTT3 1022.648 25.514 10.626
CTT4 1658.085 39.98 16.582

3.2 Effect of corrugation with constant mean

diameter
Collapse behavior of corrugated tube with varying
frequency (8,10,11 and 13) is shown in Fig. 5. It can be
easily seen from the figure that ATFC1 and ATFC2 give
the similar collapse behavior as their folding starts from
the top of the tube and the folds then proceed along the
tube as shown. The crushing pattern was random for
ATFC3 and ATFC4 which had no relation with ATFC1 and
ATFC2.Only lower deformation was found in ATFC4 but in
case of ATFC3, the deformation appears at the top and
eventually at the bottom end of the tube. Under such
variations, there is a significant rise in the energy
absorption and the mean peak force with constant mean
diameter. Peak force and energy absorption are highest
for the tube having a maximum frequency of corrugation
i.e. energy absorption, peak force and mean peak force
increases with the increase in corrugation. Such
response can be observed from their respective load-
displacement curve from Fig. 10(c).

3.3 Effect of pitch

As shown in Fig. 10(d) an increase in pitch of the
corrugated tube there is an increase in peak force
whereas there is a fluctuation in the results of ATPC4
numeric model, for ATPC1 ATPC2 and ATPC3 the energy
Figure 10. a (ATMD), b (CMD), c (ATFC), d (ATPC), absorption and mean peak force increases with the
e (ATAC), f (ATTT) and g (CTT) increase in corrugation, but further, it decreases for
ATPC4. From Fig.6 the collapse behavior of ATPC4 is
Table 2 entirely different as its deformation initiates in the
Energy Peak force Mean force middle of the tube. This may weaken the structure as it
SPECIMEN
(J) (kN) (kN) collapsed globally. The collapse pattern of ATPC1 and
ATMD1 7520.194 167.413 75.215
ATPC3 are similar as they collapsed from top and bottom
both but the deformation at the bottom is more.ATPC2
ATMD2 5162.847 133.541 51.578
and ATPC4 give the much closer value of mean peak
ATMD3 4174.104 122.564 41.717
force and energy absorption whereas a different value of
ATMD4 3469.045 127.462 34.7 peak load.
ATFC1 2660.883 92.048 26.605
ATFC2 3315.144 104.412 33.161 3.4 Effect of amplitude
ATFC3 4609.4 114.482 46.113 The results for ATAC’S shows a minimal fluctuation in
ATFC4 7520.194 167.413 75.215 the values of energy absorption, peak force an mean
ATPC1 4609.4 114.482 46.113 peak force(frequency of corrugation is 11). This is an
ATPC2 5474.534 134.763 52.890
indication that these geometrical factors do not play a
significant role on the deformation modes, force-
ATPC3 6206.049 160.001 62.0332
displacement characteristics. Hence the amplitude effect
ATPC4 5387.832 167.96 53.861
is less evident as compared to that of the pitch. Fig. 7
ATTT1 812.5086 16.318 8.125
shows the identical crush behavior of varying amplitudes.
ATTT2 2486.378 69.867 25.029 On the other hand, a significant increase in performance
ATTT3 4303.183 117.191 43.211 characteristic is observed when the tube thickness
ATTT4 7520.194 167.413 75.215 changes. It is because of the increase in stiffness that
ATAC1 4609.4 114.482 46.113
ATAC2 4536.335
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ATAC3 4544.982 114.482 45.459 Download Date | 2/1/18 1:24 PM
ATAC4 4552.772 114.476 45.505
CMD1 1656.133 39.976 16.56
increases with the wall thickness values, therefore,
increase the initial load needed to start crushing.
3.5 Effect of thickness
By varying the thickness of tubes the collapse
behavior of corrugated and circular are shown in Fig.8
and 9 which shows the deformation modes. On
comparing the values from Table.2 it is quite evident that
energy absorption, peak force and mean peak force
increases subsequently with the increase in thickness for
both kinds of tubes, but still the results of corrugated
tubes are far ahead over circular tubes. The final crushed
shape of plain circular and corrugated thin-walled tube
with various thicknesses can be compared from Fig.8
and 9 and the corresponding force-displacement
response for the respective is shown in Fig.10(f) and (g).
CONCLUSION
Axial crushing of corrugated and circular aluminum
alloy 6060-T4 tubes under quasi-static axial loading was
performed. The response parameters were peak load,
mean peak load and energy absorption, in addition to
this the visual observation of deformation modes and
force displacement curves are shown and the main
results are summarized as follows:
1. the relative reduction in mean peak load, energy
absorption is observed with the increase in mean
diameter in corrugated cross-sectional geometry
whereas it increases in circular tubes,
2. increase in number of corrugation, there is a
significant rise in both peak load as well as energy
absorption capacity,
3. when the pitch is increased energy absorption and
peak load also increases up to a certain limit
thereafter it eventually decreases,
4. different failure modes are observed during crushing in
corrugated tubes classified as progressive end
crushing, unstable local buckling and mid-length
collapse,
5. the effect of amplitude is not such significant as there
is a scarce change in energy absorption and peak load
capacity,
6. in comparison with all the parametric study, the
ATMD1 has shown the best of all in terms of energy
absorption, peak load and mean peak load values.
Since corrugated tubes have shown good results hence
it can be used as a replacement of circular tubes with
a very scarce change in weight of structures.
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