Mechanical and Energy Absorption Performance of Expanded Perlite Foam-filled Steel Tubes

The main objective of this research is to manufacture expanded perlite (EP) foam-filled stainless steel tubes for energy absorption application and to investigate their physical and compressive behavior. Foam-filled steel tubes (FFT) were manufactured by consolidating expanded perlite/sodium silicate composite foam inside the tube. The EP particles of size 5-6 mm were taken for manufacturing FFTs. Two different sodium silicate solution to water (S/W) ratios and three compaction ratios (CR) were the manufacturing parameters of the foams. The manufactured FFTs were characterized for density, yield stress, plateau stress, energy absorption, and energy absorption efficiency. The compression test results showed that the foam filling improved the compressive properties and energy absorption ability of the steel tube significantly. The failure analysis along with the stress-strain curves was also conducted. The change in failure mechanism is found to be the reason for high energy absorption and energy absorption efficiency for high-density foam-filled tubes.