Crashworthiness of carbon fiber hybrid composite tubes molded by filament winding

Abstract Carbon Fiber Reinforced Composites (CFRPs) with light weights absorbed a large quantity of energy through the progressive crushing modes by a combination of multi micro-crack including fiber fracture and matrix fracture, bending, delamination, splitting, friction and so on. High manufacturing cost of CFRPs was one of the most important reasons for not being used as energy absorption components in wide range. In this study, five types of tubes were manufactured by filament winding method and crashworthiness performance was investigated experimentally. The effects of crushing speed, temperature treatment, raw material and structure including hybrid ratio, fiber orientation and thickness of tube wall on energy absorption capabilities were investigated through quasi-static and dynamic compression tests. Optical microscope observation of cross sections was taken to analyze the mechanism of failure. A hybrid carbon/aramid FRP tube after temperature treatment exhibited the highest Es in quasi-static test (98 kJ/kg in average) and dynamic tests (82 kJ/kg in average), which have excellent energy absorption management.