Dynamic Crushing Behavior of Helical Overlapped Woven Glass/Epoxy Composite Tubes under Repetitive Drop Weight Impact Loading

The energy absorption capacity of composite tubes requires a thorough understanding of the influencing factors. This study focuses on the complete crushing behavior of woven glass/epoxy composite tubes with helically wound overlaps under repeated drop-weight impact loading. The investigation includes evaluating the crushing resistance of tubes with various helical overlap configurations—namely, no-width overlap, quarter-width overlap, and half-width overlap—in both single- and double-layered constructions. The extent of helical overlap is treated as a key design parameter, intentionally varied to tailor the crashworthiness of the tubes. The results demonstrate that these design modifications offer significant advantages over conventionally wound (straight-wound) specimens. Specifically, composite tubes with a quarter-width helical overlap exhibit superior performance compared with other helical and the straight-wound configurations. Moreover, these tubes show higher crush initiation and mean crushing loads than those with straight wound. The study also supports that helically wound composite tubes withstand consistent failure patterns across different energy levels during repeated impact loading.