International Journal of Mechanical & Mechatronics Engineering IJMME-IJENS Vol:19 No:01
Experimental Investigation on Low Velocity Impact
of a Novel Fibre Metal Laminate (FML) Tube
M. A. Mansor1, Z. Ahmad2 and M. R.Abdullah2
1
Faculty of Engineering Technology, Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka
2
Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia
mazlan.mansor@utem.edu.my
Abstract-- The experimental study of new tubular type of
Fibre Metal Laminate (FML) with braided fibreglass sleeve and
aluminium alloy tubes was performed and its manufacturing
process was proposed. Aluminium tubes was machined to specific
thickness and chemically treated to improve the adhesive
bonding. Sleeve type braided fibreglass was selected as it comes
in specific dimension and more importantly it is seamless and
perfectly produces an excellent composite tube. Tubes carefully
assembled to form 2/1 and 3/2 layup configurations and highly
adhesive resin was introduced as interlayer, which is composed of
two layers of aluminium tubes and one layer of fibreglass braided
sleeve in between for 2/1 layup. The new design tube was tested to
evaluate the behaviour and impact characteristics under low
velocity axial impact loading, where its intended purpose of
application. This tube crushed progressively and was able to
avoid catastrophic failure. The results also indicate that the
mechanical performance of the new FML tube could be applied
as a new and efficient energy absorber.
Index Term-- Fibre Metal Laminate, Energy Absorption,
Crashworthiness, Low Velocity, Impact Loading.
1. INTRODUCTION
Over the last decade, thin-walled structures have
been widely used as energy-absorbing devices to protect the
occupants from injury in the event of collision. Continuous
efforts have been devoted to investigate the crashworthiness
characteristics for a variety of thin-walled structures. In the
event of an accident, the best chance of survival is the ability
to absorb or divert kinetic energy. Different geometries and
materials of tubular structure members have been widely used
as energy absorber. They have the ability to absorb and
convert large kinetic energy into plastic strain energy when
deformed under compression in the state of impact. Used as a
crash absorber located in the crash box, this device absorbs the
kinetic energy from an impact and collapse progressively in
controlled manner. The collapse is usually in a concertina
mode or diamond mode, or combination of both modes [1].
Contemporary land vehicles prefer to use a
lightweight material that is strong enough to sustain high
impact energy. Traditionally in the metal family, steel and
aluminium are the material of choice for its lightweight,
strength and cost. There is also non-metallic material from
composite family such as glass fibre reinforced plastic (GFRP)
and carbon fibre reinforced plastic (CFRP) that is very popular
to substitute the metallic as the crash absorber. It has very high
strength to weight ratio when compared to steel or aluminium
[2]. As the weight savings became an important improvement
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to be considered in the industry, composite gains popularity
among researchers for its strength compare to metal structures
[3] [4]. In the event of an axial impact, composite materials
such as GFRP encounter fractures to absorb energy that differ
from metals which deformed plastically [5] [6]. Failure modes
of composite are far more complicated compared to metallic,
involving fibre breakage, fibre buckling, fibre-matrix
de-bonding, matrix cracking, matrix crushing, and
delamination [7] [8] that are contributing to the energy
absorbing characteristics.
In crushing event, the energy absorption (Ea)
measures the total strain energy absorbed by the structure,
which is determined in terms of the area under the
force-displacement curve as,
𝑑
𝐸𝑎 = ∫0 𝐹(𝛿)𝑑𝛿
(1)
where F(δ) denotes the instantaneous crushing force and d is
the crushing distance concerned. Specific Energy Absorption
(SEA) is energy absorption capability, which is calculated as
per unit mass absorbed. To account for the effect of mass (m),
specific energy absorption (SEA) defined as
𝑑
𝐸𝑎 ∫0 𝐹(𝛿)𝑑𝛿
𝑆𝐸𝐴 = =
𝑚 𝑚
(2)
SEA is frequently used as one of most critical crashworthiness
criteria. A higher SEA indicates better material usage
efficiency for energy-absorption structure.
Prior to material failure due to buckling, initial
crushing peak load is measured [9]. Further failure will lead to
either catastrophic or progressive failure [10]. For an
occurrence of progressive failure, a larger area under the curve
will be gained with a constant load as the crush distance
increased. Contrarily the catastrophic failure will cause the
drastic load drop causing lower energy absorption due to the
structure integrity has been compromised horizontally [11] or
longitudal cracks happen [12]. In an axial crushing of
composite structure, there will be two fracture failure types
that are progressive failure that results in desirable
high-energy absorption and catastrophic failure results in
minimal energy absorption [13].
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With the lightweight features and good in specific
energy-absorption (SEA) capability, the composite materials
are still not suitable to replace metallic components structure.
For this reason, the metal/composite hybrid structures were
introduced by combining the low density and high strength of
composite materials with low cost and high plasticity metallic
materials such as aluminium in crushing structures. It has
proven that catastrophic failure mode of composite structure
can be changed to a progressive failure mode when the
fracture process of the composites is guided by the plastic
deformation of aluminium, thereby improving energy
absorptions for the whole structures [14] [2].
The study of tubes with two different materials, also
called hybrid tubes was carried out by Mamalis et al [15]. In
this study, the effects of different parameters such as
geometrical construction, material properties, and metal
thicknesses were investigated. The changes in these
parameters may affect the energy absorption and tube failure
modes. Kim et al. [16] and Zhu et al. [7] study the axial
crushing of metal tubes reinforced by a composite layer from
experiments and El-Hage et al. [17] and Huang et al. [18] did
in numerical. The results show that various parameters could
contribute to collapse and affect the characteristics of
crashworthiness in form of absorbed and specific energy,
minimum and peak load and crush force efficiency. The
crushing behaviour of a metal/composite hybrid structure can
be influenced by geometry, composition of composite
arrangement, surface treatment, strain rate, and others. The
idea of increasing the energy absorption capability of the
metal tubes through composite reinforcement was introduced
by Song et al. [19] studies. In the experiment, the effects
factors such as strain rate, composite wall thickness, fibre
orientation and mechanical properties of the metal tubes are
subject to impact loads. They obtained four major modes of
collapse for hybrid tubes including: compound diamonds,
compound fragmentation, delamination and catastrophic
failure. Bouchet et al. [20] analyses the effects of
reinforcement and different surface treatment of metal tubes to
enhance practical adhesion between composites and metal
tubes. The value obtained from specific energy absorption
indicates that the influence of multi-material structures surface
treatment do not have significant contribution, whereas the use
of reinforcement can improve the performance of
crashworthiness if the same crushing mode is maintained. For
thin aluminium alloy tubes, with or without reinforced fibre
plastic composites, diamond modes have been observed. On
the contrary, a thick tube without reinforcement produce the
concertina collapse mode while a thick tube with
reinforcement observed the diamond collapse mode. When the
crushing mode changes, the reinforcement used on the
aluminium tube decreases the capacity of the structure to
absorb energy. On the other hand, the reinforcement used on
the thinner tube increases the SEA of the tube.
Shin et al. [21] wrapped glass fibre-epoxy composite
pre-impregnated around an aluminium tube and cured
completely in the autoclave. The bonds between composite
tubes and aluminium are performed by excessive resin which
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is extracted from the composite tube during the curing
process. This hybrid tubes with 90º ply oriented composite
tubes demonstrate the best energy absorption capability among
all hybrid tubes. When aluminium tube deform, the composite
material prevents the aluminium tube from folding. Hybrid
tube failure is stable and progressive without any trigger
mechanism because the internal aluminium tubes can play the
role of crack initiator and controller. El-Hage et al. [22]
studied the behaviour of aluminium composite hybrid tubes
containing glass fibre reinforced epoxy wrap around
aluminium tubes in the static quasi-destructive static axis. The
fibre orientation is 45º to the tube axis. The fold initiation
force is lower with adhesive between aluminium tubes and
composites than without adhesive. The high bond failure limit
produces a lower folding initiation force and mean crush
force.
Most all the study in the hybrid tubes shows of better
energy absorption capacity than the single metallic or
composite tubes. However there is still a catastrophic failure
happen in the test that resulting low energy absorption makes
the hybrid tubes not completely able to replace metal
components in the particular structures. A new design for
hybrid is introduced in this study to add another metallic
seamless layer to the outer most tube of hybrid tube. The
design is similar to the layer of panels in fibre metal laminates
panels except in the form of seamless tube. This design could
be called fibre metal laminate (FML) tubes as well. At the
present, this FML tubes design and its performance as energy
absorber has not been studied and discussed in open literature
which makes this research more interesting.
In this study, aluminium was chosen to make the
inner and outer metallic tube; the glass fibre was chosen as
reinforcement and epoxy resin as matrix materials to
manufacture the aluminium/GFRP FML tube by using new
method that will be established. Dynamic low velocity impact
crushing tests were carried out for investigating the effects
reinforcing external and internal layer of composite tube with
aluminium tube on the crashworthiness. A study on energy
absorption and crushing mode of the FML tubes was
performed to evaluate this new design as a potent energy
absorber.
2. MATERIAL PREPARATION AND FABRICATION
METHOD
The FML tubes were built in the form of 2 × 1 (m ×
n) and 3 × 2 stacking layers with a maximum diameter of
49.6mm and length of 100 mm. The fabrication was carried
out using a conventional machining technique. In particular, m
and n signify the number of layer for metallic and composite
layers, respectively.
2.1. Material selection
2.1.1. Aluminium
For metal part, aluminium 6063-T5 tube is used due
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to its ductility and predominant impact properties compared to
other metals. A long piece of aluminium alloy AA6063-T5
[23] circular tubes with 50.4mm outer diameter and thickness
3mm was acquired. These tubes were cut into specific
diameter with thickness 0.4 mm using conventional lathe
machine.
2.1.2. Composite
For continuous fibre reinforced thermoplastic
composites, a biaxial fibreglass sleeve from Soller Composite
of USA was used. This sleeve type e-glass fibre is the best
option for composite tubes as it is seamless. A sleeve or tube
of braided material behaves like a Chinese finger trap.
Because the fibres are woven together at 45 degrees, it can
simply pull the braid to lengthen it or compress to shorten it.
This pull will reduce the fibre orientation to about 35
degrees. As the total surface area remains constant, the more it
is lengthening, the more the diameter shrinks or tightens. A
commercially available diameter 50.4mm sleeve with
thickness of 0.28 mm was selected as the composite
reinforcement
2.1.3. Matrix systems
Epoxamite 100 is the liquid epoxy system for
fibreglass product fabrication applications produced by
Smooth-On Inc of the USA. The epoxy with its 101 hardener
was used in the study. When mixed, the matrix liquid is low in
Applied surface treatment methods for aluminium tube.
Surface treatment methods Solutions
Solvent degreasing Ethanol
Chemical Etch - Kellers Distilled Water
Nitric Acid
Hydrochloric Acid
Hydroufluoric Acid 2ml
Rinse Hot water
Clean Distilled water
The machined tubes were etched in Kellers etchant
solution for 2 minutes to remove their unwanted interior
extrusion surfaces. Kellers etchant is a solution consists of
nitric acid, hydrochloric acid and hydroflouric acid diluted
with distilled water. The tubes then will be rinsed with hot
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viscosity, odourless and cures at room temperature. This
matrix also can be used with other applications such as
S-Glass, Kevlar and Carbon fibres for lay-up of composite
parts.
2.2. Manufacturing process
In this section, the process of producing effective
FML thin-walled tubes will be presented. The fabrication
method for the FML tube here is a bold process. Detail
material preparations and manufacturing methods are
describes in this section.
2.2.1 Aluminium tubes cutting process
AL6063 aluminium tube will be cut to the thickness
0.4 mm using conventional lathe machine. Machining
tolerance was set at +50 microns to avoid over cutting and for
safety reason. As the final tube is very thin, special made jigs
are required for the cutting process.
2.2.2. Surface treatment of the aluminium tube
Table I indicates the surface treatment methods,
namely mechanical abrasion, solvent degreasing, alkaline
degreasing, and plasma, which were used to modify the
surface properties of the aluminium tubes so that the adhesive
strength between the composites and aluminium plate can be
improved.
Table I
Applied conditions
Wipe with clean cloth
190ml 2 minutes immersion.
5ml Use fresh
3ml
10 second
Ultrasonic bath 1 hour
water and later were cleaned using ultrasonic bath to remove
unwanted chemical residue left throughout the process. Finally
the tube will be rinsed using distilled water and left for 24
hours to dry out in the room temperature.
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Fig. 1. Assembly procedure (a) push the outer tube to cover the composite sleeve (b) access material will be trimmed after it is cured

2.2.3. FML tube assembly process
The assembly process of FML tubes is the core
novelty in the research. The method was to impregnate the
fibreglass sleeve with epoxy, tie one end with cable tie. Cover
the inner tube with this sleeve; carefully push the outer tube to
the sub-assembly as in Figure 1.
The procedure is applicable for any number of FML
tube layup. It is important to start with the most inner tube,
followed by fibreglass sleeve and finally with the most outer
tube. The material stack up should be alternately assembled
with aluminium and composite materials. After the FML tubes
successfully produced, the FML tubes should be clean from
access epoxy using clean cloth, kept and cure at the room
temperature for 24 hour. Later the access material should be
removed and trim to the sizes. Figure 2 illustrates the
geometries of the circular tube, with the length (L), wall
thickness (t) and outer diameter (D).
The sample preparation has produced two types of
FML, 2/1 and 3/2 tubes as in Figure 3. All of these tubes have
an outer diameter of 49.6mm while the thickness are
according to the number of layers constructed. As a
comparisons, a set of bare aluminium tube with equivalent
mass to 2/1 FML tube and similar internal diameter were
prepared and tested all together. Tables 2 to 4 then show the
measurements of 2/1, 3/2 FML tubes and aluminium bare tube
respectively that have been taken. Both 2/1 FML tubes and
aluminium bare tube have a general inner diameter of 46.6mm
while 3/2 FML tubes is 44.4mm.

Fig. 2. Schematic of FML tube parameters.

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Fig. 3. 2/1 FML tubes and 3/2 FML tubes.

2.2.4. GFRP layer observation can be cut into pieces and stack together. The edge of the plate
The critical point in building this FML tube is to also open ended makes it easy to assemble. While in the FML
make sure the composite layer intact in between two metal tube, all the layers are seamless and in a tube form makes it
layers. As in a FML plate, the metal and composite materials very hard to laminate all the tubes become a FML tube.

Table II
2/1 FML tube measurement
Label Mass (g) Length ( L ) Diameter ( D ) Thickness ( t )
DB1 48.92 100.03 47.70 1.55
DB2 48.82 100.05 47.60 1.54
DB3 49.11 100.11 47.67 1.54
DB4 47.69 100.06 47.60 1.54
DB5 48.68 100.07 47.65 1.60
Mean 48.64 100.07 47.64 1.55
Std Dev 0.56 0.03 0.05 0.03

Table III
3/2 FML tube measurement
Label Mass (g) Length ( L ) Diameter ( D ) Thickness ( t )
DC1 81.67 100.07 49.59 2.53
DC2 81.37 100.06 49.64 2.57
DC3 80.64 100.01 49.62 2.59
DC4 80.06 99.85 49.65 2.55
DC5 80.54 99.98 49.66 2.57
Mean 80.86 99.99 49.63 2.56
Std Dev 0.65 0.09 0.03 0.02

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Table IV
Aluminium bare tube measurement
Label Mass (g) Length ( L ) Diameter ( D ) Thickness ( t )
T1 48.60 99.64 49.15 1.17
T2 48.27 99.70 49.13 1.19
T3 49.73 99.83 49.22 1.23
T4 48.44 99.78 49.20 1.17
T5 48.36 99.96 49.21 1.21
Mean 48.68 99.78 49.18 1.19
Std Dev 0.60 0.12 0.04 0.03

After the FML tube was fabricated, the best way to
ensure that the composite layer was successfully installed is to
observe it with naked eye. The external aluminium layer was
ply open and to expose internal composite layer.
The composite layer in Figure 4 shows the resin was
properly impregnated into fibres. There was no non-smear or
bubble area detected on the composite layer indicates the
process was successfully done. The layer also shows the
thickness is even at all area and the measurement indicates
constantly 0.6mm. The information given by the manufacturer
tells that the thickness of a single layer of this glass fibre
sleeve is 0.28mm, thus 2 layers was used in the build.

Fig. 4. External aluminium layer was open exposing internal composite layer.

2.3 Crashworthiness criteria
Figure 5 shows the typical force–displacement curve
of the tube displacement in a quasi-static and dynamic-impact
compression test. To measure the crashworthiness, several
different criteria are often used, namely the initial peak force
(Fmax), mean crushing force (Favg), crush force efficiency
(CFE), energy absorption (Ea) and specific energy absorption
(SEA). The initial peak force (Fmax) is available directly from
the load-displacement curve separating the process of loading
to the pre-crushing stage and the post-crushing phase.

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Fig. 5. Typical force–displacement curve for crushing of empty circular tube [24].
The mean value of crushing force (Favg) for a given
crushing distance d is mathematically defined as:
1 𝑑
𝐹𝑎𝑣𝑔 = ∫0 𝐹(𝛿)𝑑𝛿
𝑑
(3)
where d is the collapse distance, and F(δ) is the instantaneous
crush force. (Favg) is an important design variable for a
crashworthy structure, a higher (Favg) can absorb more energy
with a certain deformation.
The initial peak force (Fmax) means the force reached
maximum load during the crashing process. Crush force
efficiency (CFE), defined as the ratio of the average crushing
force (Favg) to the initial peak force (Fmax), is used to measure
the uniformity of crushing force, as
𝐹𝑎𝑣𝑔
𝐶𝐹𝐸 =
𝐹𝑚𝑎𝑥
(4)
The CFE should be as high as possible as a high
(Fmax) may lead to severe injury or even death of occupants
during vehicle crash.
The energy absorption (Ea) measures the total strain
energy absorbed by the structure during the crashing process,
which is determined in terms of the area under the
force-displacement curve, mathematically, as in equation (1),
where F(δ) denotes the instantaneous crushing force and d is
the crushing distance concerned. Obviously, the higher energy
absorption (Ea), the better is crashworthiness. To account for
the effect of mass (m), specific energy absorption (SEA)
defined as in equation (2), is frequently used as one of most
critical crashworthiness criteria. A higher SEA indicates better
material usage efficiency for energy-absorption structure.
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3. AXIAL CRUSHING BEHAVIOUR AND ENERGY
ABSORBTION
3.1. Dynamic experimental test
The dynamic-impact loading test was performed
using Instron-CEAST 9350 Drop Tower Impact System
machine in Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) Sekudai.
The working principle is using gravity pull to generate
acceleration and weight plate is used to obtain the required
energy. With drop height set to maximum 1.1 meter and
maximum drop weight is 70kg, the machine generates 757J of
energy. Since the machine is also fitted with impact speed
accelerator, the drop height can be simulated up to 30 meter
thus giving the maximum energy range up to 1800J. All the
measurements are carried out by strain gauges inside the
transducer box attached to the striker shaft. The signals are
collected by data acquisition system then calculated by the
computer using software provided by the manufacturer. Load,
displacement and time characteristics were then obtained.
For the test, the energy was set to 871J. This value
was used to compress about 50% of the original length. The
test data for the tubes are listed in Table 5. The representative
deformed mode pictures for each configuration can be found
in Figure 6. When the specimen was axially crushed, it
normally deforms in some mode. The localization of the
axisymmetric and mixed mode of deformation for all tested
specimen, started at the impacted end. The progressive
collapse of the tube is started by forming a folding lobe from
one end. Then, as the previous lobe is completed, the adjacent
folding lobe is formed on top and stack on each other. This
process continues in series until the test is terminated. In
general, there are 4 modes of collapse could be found in
compressed tube. They are concertina mode (axisymmetric),
diamond mode (asymmetric), buckling mode (asymmetric)
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and mixed mode (asymmetric) [1]. These modes are closely Onsalung et al. [25]. There are 3 collapse modes found in this
depending on geometry of specimens. They are different in study that are concertina mode, diamond mode and mixed
appearance and energy absorption capacity, as discussed by (concertina with diamond) mode as shown in Figure 7.

Table V
Mean value of dynamic test results for 2/1 FML tubes (DB), 3/2 FML tubes (DC) and aluminium tubes (T)
Max Mean
Absorbed Crush CFE SEA
Force, Load,
Specimen Mass, M Fmax Energy, Ea Length, d Fave=Ea/d Fave/Fmax Ea/M
(g) (kN) (Nm) (mm) (kN) (Nm/g)
DB 48.66 49.99 659.37 55.6 11.93 0.24 13.56
DC 80.86 89.34 479.89 16.83 28.55 0.32 5.93
T 48.68 41.96 710.2 44.27 16.71 0.41 14.59

Fig. 6. Deformed modes of bare aluminium tube (T1), 2/1 FML tube (DB4) and 3/2 FML tube (DC3) in dynamic impact tests.

Fig. 7. Typical collapse mode under impact: (a) concertina mode, (b) diamond mode, (c) mixed mode.

For the empty tubes T, they collapse in concertina
mode followed by diamond that is called mixed mode. For
both FML tubes DB and DC in Figure 6, they collapse in
diamond only. One reason why different modes were found
here might be because of the difference in tube density while
the diameter D is the same.
Typical plot of impact force versus axial crushing
displacement curve for one sample from each configuration is
shown in Figure 8. These curves were characterized by a high
initial peak load followed by oscillations. The curves are
normally fluctuating in wavy shape. Each loop of the curve is
corresponding to a lobe in the deformed tubes. The high
frequency content was assumed to be associated with the
vibration of the test rig. At the final displacement, all the
impact energy was absorbed by the specimen. Absorb energy
versus crush displacement for all specimens are shown in
Figure 9. An approximately linear relationship between
energy and displacement was found for all tests.

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Fig. 8. Dynamic tests impact force-displacement curves

Fig. 9. Absorbed energy-displacement curves

In the case of 2/1 tubes labelled with DB4, it can be

seen that the initial peak load of 48.8 kN occurred at the
displacement of 1.9 mm. The region before reaching the initial
peak value was named the pre-crushing stage, in which the
force–displacement relationship is linear deformation of FML
tube was observed. The region after the initial peak load is
known as the post-crushing stage for composite materials and
progressive folding stage for metals. After the initial peak
load, a progressive folding stage follows, which represents the
main phase for energy absorption. In this stage, the aluminium
tubes started deforming plastically with development of one
lob in a concertina mode at the incident [26] end and with
increase in the crushing displacement, it was followed by
several folds in a diamond mode. This is quite typical pattern
for the aluminium tube to see several corresponding
oscillations in the force–displacement curves around the
average value. However, in the FML tubes, the corresponding
oscillations are much lower compare to the initial peak load.
While in the single composite tube case, post crushing stage
will be resulting in a series of small fluctuations of load value
around the mean crush load. Additionally, friction effect
between fronds and platen can be observed during the
crushing, and this effect may be a significant contributor to the
energy absorption of composite tube from the literature [3].
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Normally, the load-displacement curve of concertina
mode is more uniform than other modes. As the result, the
mean crushing load is high compared to peak load and helps to
reduce deceleration while impacting. This has been confirmed
by many investigators such as Andrews et al. [1] and Pled et
al.[27] who indicated that the concertina mode is better than
other modes and higher specific energy absorption than the
diamond mode. In addition, the study of Gupta et al.[28] also
revealed that the crushing load of concertina mode is higher
than diamond mode in the specimen with same geometry and
boundary condition. On the crash behaviour, this progressive
crush mode is the better for body tolerance in respect to
reducing of acceleration and deceleration of human body. It is
postulated that composite layer which filled in between the
aluminium tube helps distributing impact load to the tube wall
more effective, resulting more uniform mode and higher
number of folds. This implies that one may achieve preferable
mode and increase number of folds by configuring the
aluminium and composite thicknesses.
4. CONCLUSION
In this study, a new method has been established to
fabricate a new type of fibre metal laminate in a seamless
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cylindrical tube to be called fibre metal laminate (FML) tube.
The hybrid specimens were made with an inner and outer tube
from aluminium and an internal layer was from glass fibre
reinforced epoxy (GFRE). The aluminium outer was ply open
to investigate the structure integrity and found that the epoxy
has evenly impregnated the fibre cloth and have a fine uniform
thickness.
Few specimens were tested with dynamic impact
loading test to study the response and deformation using a
reliable impact tester. Results show that the deformation
process of a FML tube under axial compression was in a
progressive concertina mode mixed with diamond mode, with
formation of a series of progressive plastic folds. The use of
laminated tubes allowed to minimise the fluctuation in the
post-crushing zone the crushing thus cutting down the
decelerations applied to the structure. From the dynamic
impact loading test, the mean total energy absorption is 660
Nm that crush the 60% of total FML tube length and gives
13.6 Joule/gram in specific energy absorption (SEA). The
crush force efficiency (CFE) was less than 30% and this is
relatively low as it may lead to severe injury or even death of
occupants during vehicle crash if it was used as the crash
absorber. As this research was meant to develop a novel FML
tube, it is good to see it can be produced, receive the impact
load and collapse progressively while the low results in CFE
will be a new area to be focus in future study.
As future development, the behaviour of the FML
tubes could be improved particularly to increase the CFE by
having more layers to the FML, improved composite layup
direction and added composite thickness to the inner layer.
Different materials can be used such as carbon fibre and
Kevlar to observe the FML tube behaviour under the axial
crush event.
REFERENCES
[1] Andrews, K.R.F., G.L. England, and E. Ghani, Classification of
the axial collapse of cylindrical tubes under quasi-static loading.
Int. J. Mech. Sci. 25, 1983: p. 687-696.
[2] Ramakrishna, S., Microstructural design of composite materials
for crashworthy structural applications. Materials & Design, 1997.
18(3): p. 167-173.
[3] Mamalis, A.G., et al., On the response of thin-walled CFRP
composite tubular components subjected to static and dynamic
axial compressive loading: experimental. Composite Structures,
2005. 69(4): p. 407-420.
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