Assessing the crashworthiness of nanocarbon‐filled glass fiber reinforced epoxy composite tubes under axial loading

Abstract

This research aimed to understand how the incorporation of nanocarbon powder (NCP) influences the crashworthiness performance of glass fiber‐reinforced epoxy (GFRE) tubular components, potentially offering insights into improving the safety and resilience of structures or vehicles. Consequently, the crashworthiness behaviors of circular tubes made of GFRE with varying amounts of NCP was studied. Utilizing wet‐wrapping through hand lay‐up technique, GFRE tubes were fabricated with various weight percentages of NCP, that is, 0, 0.25, 0.50, 1, 2, 3, and 4 wt.%. Following that, the crashing load, total absorbed energy against displacement responses, and deformation histories of these tubes under quasi‐static axial loading conditions were calculated and tracked. As part of the crashworthiness analysis, critical indicators were evaluated, including initial peak load (), total absorbed energy (U), mean crash force (), crash force efficiency (CFE), and specific energy absorption (SEA). The findings reveal that the maximum , U, , and SEA were noted at 0.5 wt.% of NCP, with increasing percent's of 30.80, 12.17, 12.16, and 7.50, respectively, compared to the unfilled tube. While, the CFE was recorded by 3 wt.% of NCP with an enhancement of 16.67%. It is worth to note that, the findings reveal that the inclusion of NCP increases crashworthiness metrics up, that is, , U, , and SEA to a concentration of 0.50 wt.% NCP. However, beyond this point, there's a notable decline in performance.Highlights The GFRE tubes were filled with various wt.% of NCP. The planned tubes were made using hand lay‐up methods. The tubes were subjected to axial compression loads to examine their crashing behavior. The crashing load and absorbed energy versus displacement responses for tubes were exposed. The experimental results were analyzed and discussed.