Development of a trigger mechanism with circular cut-outs to improve crashworthiness characteristics of glass fiber-reinforced composite pipes

• Published in: Journal of the Brazilian Society of Mechanical Sciences and Engineering 2022, Vol.44 (1), Article 15
• Main Authors: Özbek, Özkan, Bozkurt, Ömer Yavuz, Erkliğ, Ahmet
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Axial compression; Compression tests; Crashworthiness; Crushing; Energy absorption; Engineering; Failure analysis; Failure modes; Fiber composites; Fiber orientation; Filament winding; Glass fiber reinforced plastics; Glass fibers; Impact strength; Mechanical Engineering; Pipes; Stability analysis; Technical Paper; Wet filament winding
• ISSN: 1678-5878; 1806-3691
• DOI: 10.1007/s40430-021-03304-x

The present work is concerned with the improvement of crashworthiness characteristics of glass fiber-reinforced composite pipes (GFRP) by developing a trigger mechanism through circular cut-outs. To induce progressive crushing of the GFRP samples, circular cut-outs with varied geometrical designs in terms of number, position, and diameter were used. The wet filament winding process was used to fabricate the GFRP samples with±(55°) 6 fiber orientation, which were then subjected to quasi-static axial compression test. The influence of cut-outs on the stability and fracture characteristics in a crash event was studied by analyzing the crashworthiness parameters such as load–displacement response, failure modes, crushing load efficiency, and energy absorption. Overall, the best performance for GFRP subjected to axial crushing was achieved from the samples having three cut-outs with the size of 10 mm diameters which are placed near to the impacted end.