21114 Study on buffering characteristics of square tubes with openings at corners and its application to crashworthy structures of railcar

Abstract

It is expected to apply crushable structure technique developed in automobile industry to crashworthy structures for railcar and truck. In this study, we proposed various kinds of alminum square tubes with openings at their comers as one of crashworthy structures and estimated their energy absorption characteristics. The experimental and FEA results show that deformation mode of "C-letter pattern" has higher energy absorption efficiency than one of "S-letter pattern". We derived equations to predict maximum load and absorption energy for design and discussed application of these results to truck beam for railcar.