Crushing of braced tubes

The aim of this project is to study the energy absorption capabilities of thin-walled tubes with various cross sectional geometry. 6 tubes of mainly circular, square and hexagonal shapes were studied. 2 of the circular tubes had 2 and 3 reinforcement lines in the middle whereas 1 of the square tubes had 2 reinforcement lines in the middle. The tubes were fabricated using wire cut method and went through normalization before the axial crushing test. The cross sectional area was kept constant so as to ensure that the mass of the tubes were roughly the same. It was observed that the circular tube with no reinforcement exhibited the best energy absorption capability. The hexagonal tube with no reinforcement was the second best energy absorber. These 2 tubes also had the highest structural effectiveness when calculated using experimental data. It was observed that the introduction of reinforcement did not aid the energy absorption capability of the circular and square tubes. Another part of the project was to determine energy absorption behavior of origami tubes fabricated using polypropylene sheets. The crushing test revealed a difference in the trend of the force vs displacement curves as the test was repeated. The energy absorbed reduces with repeated tests as the plastic deformation was eliminated.Bachelor of Engineering (Mechanical Engineering