Study of Two-distinct Automotive Bumper Beam Designs during Low Speed Impacts

Abstract

Bumper beam is one of the key components in the automotive bumper system, which plays an important role in crash as a protection for occupants and a car's frontal compartment by absorbing impact energy. The most critical parameters, including material, thickness, and shape and impact condition are studied in this paper for the design and analysis of an automotive front bumper beam to enhance the low-velocity impact crashworthiness design. Two different bumper beams made of different materials are simulated to determine the deflection, impact force, stress distribution and energy-absorption behavior; these characteristics are compared with each other to find best choice of material with suitable thickness. For comparison, the time history of the measured parameters is showed in graphs. The result shows that C-Hat design fulfills almost all the criteria for low speed impact. In addition to the above-mentioned benefits, some more advantages like easy manufacturing due to simple design, economical aspects by utilizing low-cost aluminum and reducing weight with respect to steel can be achieved by aluminum material.