Dynamic crushing response of an energy absorption connector with curved plate and aluminum foam as energy absorber

In this paper, the drop-weight impact loading tests were conducted to study the dynamic crushing behaviors of the proposed energy absorption connectors with curved plate and aluminum foam as energy absorber. The dynamic collapse modes of the connectors were obtained from the tests and three deformation processes were identified. The effects of loading rate, filled aluminum foam, curved plate thickness and radius on the energy absorption performances of the connectors were quantitatively evaluated, which showed that filling the connector with aluminum foam as well as increasing loading rate, curved plate thickness and radius generally led to increase of energy absorption capacity of the connector. Besides the experimental works, the numerical and analytical models were also developed to predict the force–displacement responses of the connectors and the accuracies of the two models were validated against the test results. The developed analytical model could be utilized as a convenient tool to quickly evaluate the energy absorption performances of such connectors under impact loading.