Dynamic Response Analysis of CFRTP Cylindrical Member for Front Collision of Automobiles

Abstract

CFRP cylindrical member have high energy absorption performance under axial compressive load. Carbon Fiber Reinforced Thermo Plastics (CFRTP) will be useful for structural material of a shock absorber in the various industries. And in order to evaluate the behavior of this composite, several experimental study and numerical simulations using FEM are carried out recently. However, it is difficult to simulate the crushing behavior of CFRTP cylindrical member with progressive crushing by the FEM, because the crushing mechanism contains various kinds of fractures such as delamination and micro buckling and so on. In the present study, we developed cylindrical CFRTP member designed and fabricated for the purpose of designing impact energy absorption members under fulllap collision. Drop weight impact tests were carried out to investigate impact response behaviors and impact energy absorption characteristics of the cylindrical CFRTP member. Also, a finite element (FE) model was developed by using the nonlinear, explicit dynamic code LS-DYNA to simulate the progressive crushing behaviors and absorbed energy of the cylindrical CFRTP member under impact loading.