Abstract This research was an experimental and numerical investigation of the cylindrical expanded Sheets under impact loading. Two types of absorbers with different cell angles were examined (i.e. α = 0 and α = 90). The experiments were performed using the drop hammer setup, and the numerical simulations were conducted by ABAQUS. In this study, the type of collapse, force-displacement diagrams, the crushing length, and the absorbed energy were investigated. The experimental and numerical results were compared, and it was observed that they were in good agreement. Results showed that the absorbers with the cell angle of α = 0 had a symmetric collapse and a high energy absorption capacity. Also, various heights of fall were considered for the impact mass to examine the type of collapse in the models. The crushing amounts of the models were also compared in different heights. Multi-walled expanded metal tubes were studied, and the effect of being multi-walled in collapse was examined.