Abstract Grooved tube has proved to be an effective energy absorber due to its excellent controllability during axial crushing. In the present research, a novel energy absorber named two-stage grooved tube is proposed. Three approaches are put forward to improve the material utilisation of grooved tube by reducing the dimensions of thick-walled section. In addition, to enhance the stability and energy absorption performance, aluminium foam is filled in empty grooved tube. An analytical model for foam-filled grooved tube is established, and in which a semi-empirical constant to reflect the tube–foam interaction is determined by fitting test data. The experimental results show that the empty grooved tube with weak thick-walled section always generates non-axisymmetric mode, while the foam filling can significantly improve the structural stability by transiting the non-axisymmetric mode into axisymmetric mode. Foam filling can also obviously enhance the energy absorption performance of empty grooved tube with strong thick-walled section, and all foam-filled cases shows typical two-stage energy absorption characteristics. Moreover, reducing the thickness and length of thick-walled section both can improve the material utilisation of foam-filled grooved tube, while the latter can also significant enhance the energy absorption performance.

中文翻译：

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提高轴向挤压槽管的材料利用率和耐撞性的尝试

摘要 沟槽管在轴向破碎过程中具有良好的可控性，已被证明是一种有效的能量吸收器。在目前的研究中，提出了一种名为两级槽管的新型能量吸收器。提出了通过减小​​厚壁截面尺寸来提高槽管材料利用率的三种途径。此外，为了提高稳定性和吸能性能，空槽管内填充泡沫铝。建立了泡沫填充沟槽管的分析模型，其中通过拟合试验数据确定了反映管-泡沫相互作用的半经验常数。实验结果表明，具有弱厚壁截面的空槽管总是产生非轴对称模态，而泡沫填充可以通过将非轴对称模式转变为轴对称模式来显着提高结构稳定性。泡沫填充还可以明显增强厚壁截面强的空槽管的吸能性能，所有泡沫填充的情况都表现出典型的两级吸能特性。此外，减小厚壁截面的厚度和长度既可以提高泡沫填充槽管的材料利用率，又可以显着提高能量吸收性能。