Improvements in the crushing behaviour of glass fibre-epoxy composite tubes by the addition of hollow glass particles

For crashworthiness applications, hollow composite tubes have been proposed and studied as impact-bearing members in earlier studies to replace metal tubes and beams which resisted impact by bending. This study focusses on the effect of the addition of hollow glass microballoons (GMB) in composite tubes for compressive loading. Epoxy containing 0 to 0.3 volume fraction of GMB is used with woven glass fabrics to fabricate the specimens. The mean load and energy absorbed while progressively crushing the tubes are experimentally obtained. The variation of these properties with the addition of GMB is analyzed. It is found that the compression properties improve with the addition of hollow glass particles. To explain the different modes of energy dissipation, the basic mechanical properties of the GMB-filled composites are obtained by various mechanical tests. These results are also used in an energy-based model to predict the properties of the tubes under compression.