A study on compressive behaviour of aluminium foam-filled tubes

In this study, deformation behaviour and failure modes of aluminium tubes reinforced with aluminium foam fillers under compression are investigated. Both experimental tests and finite element modelling are employed to determine the influences of pertinent geometry parameters of hollow tube and foam filler, including wall thickness, and structure length on the compressive behaviour of the compound tubes. The obtained results show that the existence of foam fillers can significantly affect deformations and failure modes of these tubes. The information obtained is useful to facilitate the design of such foam-filled tubes as more efficient energy absorbing devices for automotive engineering applications