Mechanical behavior and crashworthiness assessment of corrugated inner rib reinforced tubular structures

Herein, a novel corrugated inner rib reinforced tubular structures and a gradient design method are proposed. The mechanical response, interaction effect and gradient effect of the proposed tubular structures are systematically studied by means of experiment and numerical simulation. It is found that the corrugated inner rib reinforced tubular structures exhibit a progressive and stable deformation process under axial compression. Compared with the traditional straight inner rib reinforced tubular structures, the initial peak crush force (IPCF) of the corrugated inner rib reinforced tubular structure has a maximum decrease of 26.07%, and the mean crush force (MCF), crush force efficiency (CFE), specific energy absorption (SEA) has a maximum increase of 40.71%, 49.03% and 49.82%, respectively. In addition, Co-Co-inner-2 has a considerable interaction effect, which increases its energy absorption by 249.77%. However, although the gradient configuration effectively improves the SEA and MCF of the tubular structure, it brings an increase in IPCF. The SEA capacity of the corrugated inner rib reinforced tubular structures in this work is 27.12–56.77 J/g, which shows a satisfactory weight efficiency. The proposed structures can provide a useful reference for energy absorption devices in the national defense, aerospace and automotive industries.