Effect of Fiber Orientation Angle on the Energy Absorption Characteristics of Composite Tubes

Abstract

The purpose of the paper is to present a study of the effect of the ply orientationangle on the crushing behavior, energy absorption, specific energy absorption, andfailure mode of woven glass fiber/polyester laminated composite tube. Glasspolyestertubular specimens with circular cross-sectional geometry and (+45˚/-45˚,+60°/-30°, 0°/90°) fiber orientation angles were fabricated and crushed by quasistatictest under the same condition to examine the energy absorptioncharacteristics and to calculate the crashworthiness parameters. The loaddisplacementcurves of the tested tubes were presented and described; severalfailure modes of the crushed tubes were observed and discussed. It has been foundthat the fiber orientation angle has a considerable effect on the crushingcharacteristic of the collapsed tubes and the failure mode, and (0°/90°) fiberorientation angle tubes exhibit the highest SEA (specific energy absorption) 33.108kJ/kg, crush force efficiency (0.7), crush strain relation (0.81) and aload/deformation curve closer to the ideal curve than the other specimens.