Crash Performance of Steel, Aluminum and Carbon Fiber Composite Bumper Beams

Format:

Book

Conference/Event

Author/Creator:

Kudav, Deeptej, author.

Contributor:

Mallick, Pankaj K.

Conference Name:

SAE WCX Digital Summit (2021-04-13 : Live Online, Pennsylvania, United States)

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource cm

Place of Publication:

Warrendale, PA SAE International 2021

Summary:

In a frontal collision of vehicles, the front bumper system is the first structural member that receives the energy of collision. In low speed impacts, the bumper beam and the crush cans that support the bumper beam are designed to protect the engine and the radiator from being damaged, while at high speed impacts, they are required to transfer the energy of impact as uniformly as possible to the front rails that contributes to the occupant protection. The bumper beam material today is mostly steels and aluminum alloys, but carbon fiber composites have the potential to reduce the bumper weight significantly. In this study, crash performance of bumper beams made of a boron steel, aluminum alloy 5182 and a carbon fiber composite is examined for their maximum deflection, load transfer to crush cans, total energy absorption and failure modes using finite element analysis. All three beams have the same design features, but their thickness is varied to maintain the same bending stiffness. In low-speed impacts (10 mph), all three beams show similar total energy absorption; however, at high speed impacts (34 mph), the steel beam has the highest energy absorption. In terms of energy absorption per unit mass, the carbon fiber composite beam shows significantly higher energy absorption per unit mass compared to the other two beams

Notes:

Vendor supplied data

Publisher Number:

2021-01-0286

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license