Abstract
An automobile crash box is a thin walled structure made of metal or composite material which is mounted on the front region of the vehicle. Its main purpose is to absorb the energy due to collision in the event of a crash. Crash boxes made of metals like steel and aluminum are widely used whereas use of composite crash boxes is in development phase in automobile industry. In automobile industry there is always a quest to reduce the mass of the vehicle for reduction of raw material usage and also to increase fuel efficiency. Composite crash boxes provide very good weight to stiffness ratio which makes them good contenders. But the behaviour of parts made of composite material in impact or collisions has to be understood for its usage in automobile structure. Crash box plays an important role in the event of a frontal collision of the vehicle. A crash box should absorb maximum possible energy and should deform sequentially so that the deformation pattern is not random. In this paper the effect of various types of triggers is investigated for GFRP composite crash boxes. Trigger is a geometrical feature applied to the crash box with the objective of achieving the desired energy absorption, deformation pattern and peak force. A comparative study of variation of peak forces, energy absorbed, S.E.A (specific energy absorbed) was done with the variation of triggers for crash box. Force vs. displacement curves were plotted for each case providing detailed insights into the force variation during deformation.
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