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Abstract

This paper presents the energy absorption of woven kenaf fiber reinforced composite tubes subjected to axial compressive force. As-received kenaf yarn is plain-weaved to form a woven kenaf mat. Then, it is oriented and wraped around the circular steel mould. Different fiber orientations and number of layers are used to fabricate the tubes and it is then quasi-statically compressed to obtain the force-displacement curves. Two important crashworthiness parameters are extracted from the curves such as peak forces and energy absorptions. The roles of these parameters are discussed with the relation of fiber orientations and number of layers. From the experimental works, it is found that fiber orientation and number of layer played an important role in determining the crushing performances. It is also found that maximum specific energy absorption is obtained for the fiber arrangement of [00/00] and [00/00/00]. Whereas, the minimum value is occurred when 150 fiber orientation is included. Local buckling failure mechanism is responsible in producing lower specific energy absorptions.