Investigation of energy absorption characteristics of circular paper tubes under axial impact loading

• The specific collapse behavior of the circular paper tube under axial impact. • A simplified collapse mechanism for the collapse mode of circular paper tube. • A theoretical model to predict the mean crushing force of circular paper tubes. • Axial quasi-static compression and dynamic impact tests of circular paper tubes. • The theoretical results give an excellent agreement with the test results. In this paper, the deformation mechanism and energy absorption characteristics of circular paper tube under axial quasi-static and dynamic loadings are studied. The collapse mode of circular paper tube is obtained, which is different from the collapse mode of metal tube. Based on the collapse mode, a simplified spiral multi-lobe folding mode of circular paper tube is proposed, and a theoretical prediction model of energy absorption performance of circular paper tube under axial compression and impact is established, considering the effects of effective crushing distance and strain rate dependence. The theoretical results are in good agreement with the results of quasi-static compression and dynamic impact tests of circular paper tubes. The proposed model can be used to evaluate the characteristics of energy absorption structures in practical applications, and provide theoretical guidance for optimal design of paper tube structures according to the energy absorption requirements.