Mechanical behaviors of square metallic tube reinforced with rivets-Experiment and simulation

The mechanical behavior of crashworthy structures is a hot topic. In this study, square tube reinforced with rivets (STR) was firstly put forward to comprehensively investigate the influence brought from local stiffness reinforcement on deformation mode. The axial compression experiments were carried out and the results clearly showed that the collapse pattern and folding sequence of square tube were improved after riveting. Detailed mechanical properties were determined for kinds of STR structures with different rivet designs. Besides, numerical simulations by means of ABAQUS/Explicit were carried out to further analyze the deformation mode evolution. Subsequently, matching effect, local effect and interaction mechanism between basic structure and reinforcing components were investigated. Finally, parametric study involving different geometric configuration, material properties and impact velocity was performed. The proposed structure here will hopefully bring a method to understand the design principle of collapse mode controllability by means of reinforcing structural local stiffness.