Internally nested circular tube system subjected to lateral impact loading

•A theoretical model is proposed for nested tube systems under impact loading.•The crushing behavior of nested tube systems is obtained.•Force–time curves of nested tube systems exhibit a staircase pattern.•Experimental and numerical results verify the accuracy of the theoretical model.

The paper presents a theoretical, numerical and experimental investigation into the dynamic behavior of internally nested tube systems subjected to lateral impact loading. A theoretical model based on rigid, perfectly plastic material idealization is proposed, in which the effects of strain-hardening and strain-rate are considered. The analytical solutions to the crushing behavior of nested tube systems are obtained. Numerical simulations based on finite element method using the explicit code LS-DYNA and experiments are performed and the response of force and displacement versus time impacted by a drop hammer are compared with the theoretical predictions, resulting in good agreement.