Effect of Corrugation Geometry and Shape on Energy Absorption of Composite Plate

It has been observed that there is a considerable interest in recent years regarding materials which have high crushing ability particularly in energy absorption in relation to car and allied industries . An important aspect of the crushing ability of materials is its specific energy absorption value which is much greater for polymer composite than conventional metallic material. In this research, series experiments were conducted including testing of the capabilities of composite material as an energy absorber with comparison to metallic materials. The method used in the current research is to fabricate and test a series of composite plate specimens with different corrugation profile, these are: sinusoidal, triangle and square. All these specimens were fabricated from glass fibers with hand layup technique. Each profile has three different types of specimens: single plate, double plates and triple plates. The corrugated plates are fixed over each other and subjected to the same kind of compression load. All these models have been exposed to lateral crushing load and then the collapse of these models have been observed and the results have been recorded. Finally; all the results obtained in this research were recorded and discussed. It is found that the highest value of specific energy absorption was (2.472Kj/Kg ) recorded for level three square profile specimen. However, the lowest value (0.878Kj/Kg) was recorded for level two triangle profile specimen.