Crashworthiness of double-cell conical tubes with different cross sections subjected to dynamic axial and oblique loads

Thin-walled tubes are increasingly used in automobile industries to improve structural safety.The present work deals with the collapse behavior of double-cell conical tubes subjected to dynamic axial and oblique loads.Crashworthiness of these tubes having different sections(e.g.,circular,square,hexagonal,octagonal,decagonal)was numerically investigated by using an experimentally validated finite element model generated in LS-DYNA.Geometry of these tubes was then optimized by decreasing the cross section dimensions at the distal end while the weight remained unchanged.Octagonal conical tube was finally found to be more preferable to the others as a collision energy absorber.In addition,square and circular tubes showed diamond deformation mode,while the other tubes collapsed in concertina mode.A decision making method called TOPSIS was finally implemented on the numerical results to select the most efficient energy absorber.

Free Vibration Analysis of RC Box-Girder Bridges Using FEM

The free vibration analysis of simply supported box-girder bridges is carried out using the finite element method.The fundamental frequency is determined in straight,skew,curved and skew-curved box-girder bridges.It is important to analyse the combined effect of skewness and curvature because skew-curved box-girder bridge behaviour cannot be predicted by simply adding the individual effects of skewness and curvature.At first,an existing model is considered to validate the present approach.A convergence study is carried out to decide the mesh size in the finite element method.An exhaustive parametric study is conducted to determine the fundamental frequency of box-girder bridges with varying skew angle,curve angle,span,span-depth ratio and cell number.The skew angle is varied from 0°to 60°,curve angle is varied from 0°to 60°,span is changed from 25 to 50 m,span-depth ratio is varied from 10 to 16,and single cell&double cell are used in the present study.A total of 420 bridge models are used for parametric study in the investigation.Mode shapes of the skew-curved bridge are also presented.The fundamental frequency of the skew-curved box-girder bridge is found to be more than the straight bridge,so,the skew-curved box-girder bridge is preferable.The present study may be useful in the design of box-girder bridges.