Folding-crumpling of thin-walled aluminium frusta

This paper reports a new innovative mode of plastic deformation of specific thin-walled frusta when crushed axially between two rigid parallel plates with Free-fixed boundary conditions. This folding-crumpling mode is only observed in frusta within a limited range of angles. Deformable energy absorbers are briefly introduced with special attention to frusta. Experimental results for the observed deformation mode of capped-end machined aluminium frusta under quasi-static testing condition are given. Obtained results show excellent absorbing capacity of the folding-crumpling mode when compared to the other modes reported in the literature such as crushing or inversion.