Deformation and energy absorption properties of cenosphere/aluminum syntactic foam-filled circular tubes under lateral quasi-static compression

Cenosphere/aluminum syntactic foam filled thin-walled tubes were prepared by inserting aluminum matrix syntactic foams reinforced with three kinds of industrial fly ash cenospheres with different average particle sizes (150 mu m, 200 mu m and 300 mu m) into empty steel tubes. In order to investigate the response of syntactic foam-filled tubes under lateral compression, quasi-static compression experiments were performed on thin-walled empty tubes, cenosphere/aluminum syntactic foam cylinders and cenosphere/aluminum syntactic foam-filled tubes by electronic universal material testing machine. LS-DYNA finite element software was used to verify and numerically predict the mechanical properties and energy absorption performance of foam-filled tubes. The results showed that the foam-filled tube exhibits a deformation mode of six plastic hinges under lateral compression. The initial peak load and specific energy absorption of the foam-filled tube increase with the decrease of the average particle size of cenospheres. The tube wall has obvious restraint effect on the filler, but the increase of the tube wall thickness will reduce the energy absorption capacity of the whole foam-filled tube.

Automated summary

The cenosphere/aluminum syntactic foam-filled tubes exhibit a deformation mode of six plastic hinges under lateral compression. The initial peak load and specific energy absorption of the foam-filled tube increase with the decrease of the average particle size of cenospheres. The tube wall has an obvious restraint effect on the filler, but increasing the tube wall thickness will reduce the energy absorption capacity of the whole foam-filled tube.