Experimental investigations of the shrinking–splitting tube collision energy absorber

• We use two different shapes of tube deformations to absorb collision energy.
• We combine shrinking–splitting processes to increase absorption power.
• Combined method enables greater absorption power with compact dimensions.
• Combined energy absorber is applicable to variety types of railway vehicles.

This paper researches a type of absorber of kinetic collision energy that works on the principle of shrinking and splitting a tube of circular cross section. During collision, a seamless tube is thrust through a cone bush, squeezing the tube. Energy is absorbed by the plastic deformation, and through the friction between the tube and the bush. After passing through the cone bush, the tube presses against a splitter, and further energy is lost to friction and plastic deformation during the splitting process. Grooves on the inner wall of the tube prevent uncontrolled longitudinal tearing of the wall during the splitting. This new combined method of energy absorption enables greater absorption power with compact dimensions. Scaled samples have been tested in the laboratory. The influence of geometry and manufacturing technology of the samples, as well as the benefits of using such an absorber, are presented and discussed in this paper. The results show that the combined absorber has approximately 60% higher absorption power than the shrinking absorber by itself.