Key Performance Indicators of Tubes Used as Energy Absorbers

Based on our extensive studies on the experimental, theoretical and numerical results on various tubes under axial compression/impact in the last few years, we propose a set of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to assess and compare the energy absorbing performance of tubular structures with various configurations, so as to guide the design of energy absorbers whilst to archive a certain degree of optimization. The KPIs have five factors: Effective stroke ratio (ESR), Non-dimensional Load-carrying capacity (NLC), Effectiveness of energy absorption (EEA), Specific energy absorption capacity (SEA), Stableness of load-carrying capacity (SLC).The paper presents a series of diagrams to compare the energy absorbing performance of various tubes in terms of the four KPIs as described above. The work is valuable to engineering designs and applications, as well as to the further studies of the topic.