Chapter 6 - Development and performance analysis of hybrid composite side door impact beam: An experimental investigation

Abstract

Lightweight and high-performance materials are crucial in automotive engineering. This is due to the numerous benefits such as low fuel consumption, cost savings, and weight reduction. Traditionally, steel, which is heavy and absorbs less energy when compared to a composite, is used as the material for a side door impact beam. Therefore, the replacement of the steel beam is necessary to achieve weight reduction and improvement in energy absorption, especially for hybrid and electric vehicles. This could be achieved with lightweight material such as fiber reinforced polymer composites. Particularly, in this chapter, a glass fiber reinforced polypropylene composite and a hybrid composite of sugar palm fiber and glass fiber were used to fabricate side door impact beams. The beams were fabricated using the hot compression molding technique. Subsequently, the fabricated hybrid and nonhybrid composite side door impact beams were tested under three-point bending to determine their energy absorption performances. The performance indicators of the beams include maximum deflection and maximum force before failure. Other parameters are energy absorption, maximum crash force, and crash force efficiency. These performance indices of the fabricated beams were compared with an existing stamped steel beam. The results showed that the hybrid SPF/glass fiber reinforced PP composite beam (BMHC) exhibited the highest absorbed energy of 139.94J, followed by the glass fiber reinforced PP composite beam (BMC) with 104.47J. This means that the hybrid composite had the capacity to absorb energy higher than the reference steel structure by 61.9%. Furthermore, the hybrid composite beam allowed a weight reduction up to 59.2% while the glass fiber reinforced PP composite beam recorded a reduced weight of 54.5% when compared with a conventional steel beam. In conclusion, the hybrid composite side door impact beam performed better in terms of weight reduction and energy absorption as compared to a traditional steel beam.