Novel strategy using crash tubes adaptor for damage levels manipulation and total weight reduction

Abstract Absorbing energy by crash tubes has been extensively employed in many applications to improve the crashworthiness of the structure. This paper proposes Piecemeal Energy Absorption (PEA) as a novel proposed strategy to perform crashworthiness in a gradual way. PEA is implemented by crash tubes adaptor, whilst this adaptor is composed of nested pieces. Based on geometrical dimensions of the nested tubes, PEA strategy generates lower damage under lower impact velocity and higher energy absorption under high impact velocity to improves the crashworthiness of the protected structure. The novel strategy is validated by numerical and experimental methods. Furthermore, PEA flexibility and capability are illustrated by implementing the strategy in two popular applications (subway buffer and UAV landing gear). Due to the generality and applicability of the proposed PEA strategy, it is recommended to replace existing vehicles absorbers in order to manipulate the damage levels, along with considering PEA roles in new crashworthy designs leads to redistribute and reduce the whole internal protected structure masses.