Finite Element Analysis of Collapse of Metallic Tubes

Abstract

Quasi-static axial and lateral compression tests were conducted on aluminium tubes of circular,rectangular, and square cross sections on a universal testing machine (Instron model 1197).During the compression process, different tubes were collapsed in different modes of collapse.These compression processes were also modelled using FORGE2 finite element code. The codehas the capabilities of automatic mesh generation, modelling of die, creation of material data file,carrying out the finite element computations, and post-processing of results. The deformingtube material was modelled as rigid-visco-plastic. Development of different modes of collapsewas investigated experimentally and computationally. The experimental load-compression curvesand deformed shapes are compared with the computed results and found in good agreement.It is found that the proposed finite element models of the different compression processes arecapable of predicting the modes of collapse.