Introducing a new all steel accordion force limiting device for space structures

A significant defect of space structures is the progressive collapse issue which may restrict their applicability. Force limiting devices (FLDs) have been designed to overcome this deficiency, though they do not operate efficiently in controlling the force displacement characteristics. To overcome this flaw, a new type of FLD is introduced in the present study. The "all steel accordion force limiting device" (AFLD) which consists of three main parts including cylindrical accordion solid core, tubular encasing and joint system is constructed and its behavior has been studied experimentally. To improve AFLD's behavior, Finite element analysis has been carried out by developing models in ABAQUS software. A comprehensive parametric study is done by considering the effective design parameters such as core material, accordion wave length and accordion inner diameter. From the results, it is found that AFLD can obtain a perfect control on the force-displacement characteristics as well as attaining the elastic-perfect plastic behavior. Obtaining higher levels of ultimate load carrying capacity, dissipated energy and ductility ratio can be encountered as the main privileges of this device. Ease of construction and erection are found to be further advantages of AFLD. Based on the obtained results, a procedure for predicting AFLD's behavior is offered.