Experimental study on impact performance of glass fiber reinforced plastic thin-walled tubes

Glass fiber reinforced plastic (GFRP) thin-walled tubes have excellent erosion resistant capability and highly feasible design ability, and thus have been shown broad applications in oil and construction industrials. In this paper, we utilized Hopkinson pressure bar(SHPB) system to explore the impact resistance, deformation and failure mode, and dynamic response of GFRP thin-walled tube with different wall thicknesses and shapes. Experimental results prove that the circular tubes possess higher dynamic compression modulus and better impact resistance while the square tubes exhibit more superior energy absorption property. In addition, those performances can be improved with thicker wall. Compared to other traditional aluminum alloy tubes, GFRP tubes show better energy absorption capability. Overall, this study provides significant insights for structural optimization of GFRP tubes and design guidelines on engineer applications.