Impact behaviour of carbon fibre reinforced polymer (CFRP) strengthened square hollow steel tubes: A numerical simulation

Carbon fibre reinforced polymer (CFRP) has become popular and used in various engineering applications. Strengthening of hollow steel sections using CFRP has proven improved structural characteristics under static loading conditions. However, there are very few studies available related to the axial dynamic impact behaviour of CFRP strengthened steel hollow sections. This paper evaluates the behaviour of CFRP wrapped hollow square steel tube sections under axial impact loading through validated numerical models. A comprehensive parametric study has been conducted to evaluate the effects of impact mass, impact velocity, adhesive strength and fibre modulus on the impact performance of these tubes. Crash behaviour is studied by comparing the peak impact force, axial deflection, absorbed internal energy and failure modes between CFRP wrapped and bare steel models. The results show that the variations in impact velocity and fibre modulus can have significant effect on the impact response of CFRP wrapped tubes.