Finite element modeling of the crushing behavior of thin-walled CFRP tubes under axial compression

A finite element modeling methodology was developed to study the crushing behavior and energy absorption characteristics of graphite/epoxy laminated circular tubes. Laminated tubes were modeled using multiple layers of shell elements with layers being tied together using tiebreak contact. A progressive damage model was used to simulate the failure within each layer while a mesh-independent energy-based failure criterion for the tiebreaks was...