ENERGY-ABSORPTION CAPABILITY OF FIBERGLASS COMPOSITE SQUARE FRUSTA SUBJECTED TO STATIC AND DYNAMIC AXIAL COLLAPSE

The crashworthy behaviour of square frusta of fibreglass composite mat erial subjected to axial compression at various strain rates is report ed. The effect of specimen geometry and the loading rate on the energy absorbing capability was experimentally studied. The mechanics of the axial crumbling process from macroscopic and microscopic points of vi ew weve also investigated theoretically and experimentally. The collap se modes at macroscopic and microscopic scale during the failure proce ss were observed and analysed. A theoretical analysis of the observed stable collapse mechanism of the components crushed under axial compre ssion, for calculating crushing loads and energy absorbed during colla pse, is proposed A good agreement between theoretical and experimental results was obtained indicating the efficiency of the theoretical mod el in predicting the energy absorbing capacity of the collapsed shell. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd.