Citation

Hussain NN, Regalla SP, Rao YVD, Mohammed AM. Int. J. Crashworthiness 2022; 27(4): 1152-1166.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2022, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/13588265.2021.1914953

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

In automobiles there is large scope for composite materials to be used for manufacture of structural parts. The development of electric vehicles has caused for a gain in utilization of composites in automotive applications. In the event of a collision composites afford for an electrical insulation aimed at safety in contradiction of electric shock along with higher strength to weight ratios, which helps in making light weight automobile structures. But composite materials have peculiar as well as complex deformation patterns under compressive impact loading, which is common in vehicle collisions. The deformation pattern of the composites depends on the type of materials used for reinforcement as well as matrix and their layout. Triggers which are accommodated in the design of an element so that deformation initiates at the specific region and has a high impact on the attribute with reference to energy absorption the component as they modify the deformation modes. Therefore before using composite materials for structural parts in automobiles, it is essential to characterize their behaviour when subjected to impacts. For the parts under compressive impact loadings the common method employed for studying the behavior under such conditions is Drop weight impact testing. In this study a GFRP (glass fiber reinforced plastic) composites crash boxes with four different cross sections (square, cylindrical, hexagonal and decagonal) provided with two different triggering patterns (slot trigger and front end trigger) are subjected to drop weight impact testing. In this study, influence of triggering on composite crash box is investigated using experimental drop weight testing along with correlation of numerical simulation. The prime motive of this study is to illustrate the influence of triggers on the deformation pattern along with the force and energy absorption level for a GFRP crash boxes under drop weight axial impacts.

Language: en

Keywords

Automobile crash box; drop weight impact testing; glass fiber reinforced plastic (GFRP); impact energy absorption; numerical analysis; trigger patterns