Numerical investigation of different boundary conditions on crushing behavior of composite hat-shape energy absorbers

Car body light weighting and crashworthiness are two important objectives of car design and improvement. Composite materials are extensively used in the industries because of their specific properties. Nowadays, Hat sections are used in road vehicles to absorb side impacts. On the other hand, weight reduction has dominantly been considered in the automotive industry to reduce the fuel consumption. This paper presents a numerical study on the effects of different boundary conditions on the crushing behavior of the hat-sections made from fiber glass-polyester and the value of absorbed energy under static and quasi-static loadings. The specimen is investigated by the finite element method using ABAQUS software. There the best results are presented. The numerical results unveil some important fact about using composite materials in hat shape energy absorbers and also show that through the changes of boundary conditions, the energy absorption and behavior of hat shape structures can change.

کلیدواژه ها:

Boundary conditions ، Crushing ، Composite ، Hat-shape