Axial impact crushing behaviour of thin-walled braided composite tubes: Experimental comparison on basalt fibre and glass fibre reinforcement

Abstract

The collapse performance and energy absorption of thin-walled tube of basalt/epoxy and glass/epoxy subjected to axial quasi-static and dynamic impact crushing were investigated. The effects of braid orientation, fibre materials, and loading rate focusing on crushing behaviour were discussed. The braid orientation could be found to have significant influences on energy absorption performance and crushing mechanism. Based on results, thin-walled basalt composite tube has greater energy absorption capacity than thin-walled glass composite tube. The energy absorption capability in impact crushing tests could be found approximately 30% to be higher than that in quasi-static crushing tests. Thin-walled basalt/epoxy tubes have lower crush rate dependency as compared with thin-walled glass/epoxy tube.