Experimental and Numerical Study of In-Plane Loading of Thin-Walled Tubes with Different Section Shapes and Wall Thickness

In this paper, deformations and energy absorption capacities of thin-walled tubes with different section geometries (circle, square, rectangle, hexagon and triangle) under quasi-static in-plane loading are investigated. The tubes have the same material properties, mass, volume, lengths and average section area and the loading conditions are similar for all of the specimens. In order to investigate the behaviour of the tubes, more than 100 tests are carried out and numerical simulations are performed. The numerical results are in good agreement with experimental data and show that the section geometry has an important effect on energy absorption capacity so that the circular and square sections have the least and the most capability of energy absorption, respectively. Furthermore, for a specific tube, the absorbed energy increases with the wall thickness. The first peak load in load-displacement curves has the greatest and the smallest values for rectangular and circular sections, respectively.