Dynamic crushing characteristics of high strength steel cylinders with elliptical geometric discontinuities

Thin-walled members are commonly used as energy absorbers in engineering structures and often contain cutouts. This study performed numerical simulations of high strength steel cylindrical shells with elliptical cutouts subjected to dynamic axial impact. The LS-DYNA code was the primary analytical tool used to analyze the influence of cutout locations, cutout shapes and symmetry of cutout on the energy absorption capabilities and the crush characteristics of tubes with a cutout. For high strength steel tubes made from a rate sensitive material, the stress-strain curves of different strain rates were used to elucidate the effect of dynamic impact on the strain rate. Our results show that collapse crushing behavior is strongly influenced by the location and symmetry of cutouts and the variation of major axis influences the peak crush load.