Experimental and numerical study on the energy absorption performance of aluminum foam-filled multi-cell square tubes

When rockbursts occur, the unloading rate of the relief valve of the hydraulic support is less than the loading rate of the impact load, which leads to a continuous increase in the hydraulic column pressure or even failure. To improve the service life of hydraulic support structures under impact loading, an aluminum foam-filled multi-cell square tube is designed and investigated as an energy absorption component to prevent support column failure. In this study, the energy absorption performance of the multi-cell square tube during buckling deformation is investigated via simulation and quasi-static compression tests considering the cross-sectional shape and aluminum foam filling rate. The equivalent crushing load of the tube is calculated by analyzing the impact of the basic deformation unit. The results show that the corner-to-corner (C2C) multi-cell square tube exhibits the best energy absorption performance among six kinds of cross sections. In addition, the interaction between aluminum foam and a multi-cell square tube can improve the performance of the multi-cell square tube. Furthermore, after the C2C component is installed in the support column, the load on the column is significantly reduced, and most of the impact energy is absorbed. These results are expected to improve the performance of hydraulic supports and can be used to prevent rockbursts, which is highly important for practical engineering.