NUMERICAL INVESTIGATION IN SPLITTING MECHANISM OF ENERGY ABSORBERS

A new finite element model has been presented for simulation of deformation mode, fracture mechanism and crack growth in splitting process of circular brazen tubes. Among the different energy absorption mechanisms, splitting process has proved to be more efficiency than the others due to converting permanent peak loads to a lower steady load. For numerical modeling of splitting mechanism and crack propagation process, surface-based cohesive technique has been used. Important parameters of surface-based cohesive model are obtained from results of stressstrain diagram of simple tensile test. The effects of parameters such as number of initial notches and initial length of notches on energy absorption capacity of specimens are investigated, numerically.