Abstract:
To improve the energy absorption performance of metal circular tube composite cladding, foam concrete filled aluminum tube composite cladding was proposed in the present study. With consideration of different foam concrete densities of 300 kg/m
3, 700 kg/m
3 and 1100 kg/m
3, the deformation mode, mechanical properties and energy absorption performance of single foam concrete filled aluminum tube, as well as foam concrete filled aluminum tube composite cladding under quasi-static compression, were experimentally investigated. The results show that the energy absorption of the aluminum tube filled with 300 kg/m
3 foam concrete is slightly inferior to that of the hollow aluminum tube. With increasing the foam concrete density to 700 kg/m
3 and 1100 kg/m
3, the energy absorption performance of the filled aluminum tube is significantly improved with the increased total energy absorption by 286% and 815%, respectively. Compared to the single aluminum tube, the mutual extrusion among tubes would greatly improve the specific energy absorption of the hollow aluminum tube and 300 kg/m
3 foam concrete filled composite claddings, which are increased by 28.6% and 68.9%, respectively. Nevertheless, the specific energy absorptions of 700 kg/m
3 and 1100 kg/m
3 foam concrete filled aluminum tube composite cladding decrease by 42.7% and 38.1% due to the mutual extrusion effect of aluminum tubes. Therefore, from the point view of the practical application of the proposed foam concrete filled aluminum tube composite cladding, a small aluminum tube spacing is suggested with the low density of foam concrete filler, meanwhile, a large aluminum tube spacing is recommended to prevent the extrusion of aluminum tube with the high density of foam concrete filler.