Crashworthiness investigation of conical tubes using dimensional analysis method

This paper studied the energy absorption performance of conical tubes subjected to dynamic axial loading based on numerical finite element calculations. The influence of geometric parameters and material properties on the collapse behavior and energy absorption was discussed. The results showed that the two materials considered in this study have little effect on deformation mode of conical tubes, while the taper angle has a significant effect on deformation mode of conical tubes, and a classification chart of deformation modes for conical tubes was proposed. It was found that the conical tubes with TM mode have the best energy absorption characteristics, and the aluminum alloy conical tubes is more effective than similar tubes made from mild steel. Based on dimensional analysis, a model was proposed to predict the dynamic response of conical tubes under axial loading, including deformation displacement, energy absorption, specific energy absorption and mean crushing force. The results predicted by the proposed model were found to match well with the finite element analysis results. Furthermore, the equivalent substitution method between the aluminum alloy and mild steel conical tubes was studied, which concluded that the energy absorption equivalence method is better for lightweight design of energy-absorbing conical tubes.