AbstractTo improve the crashworthiness and reduce vehicle weight, a crash box made of carbon fiber reinforced plastics (CFRP)/aluminum (Al) hybrid materials was introduced in the paper. Quasistatic axial compression tests and numerical simulations were conducted for pure Al tubes and CFRP/Al hybrid tubes. The simulation models were validated and were further employed to investigate the effects of geometry, aluminum tube thickness, fiber wrapping angle and CFRP layers on the crashworthiness of the hybrid crash box under axial loading and 30° oblique collision. The multiobjectives were taken to obtain the optimal geometrical dimensions, aluminum tube thickness, wrapping angle, and the number of layers. The crashworthiness of the optimal CFRP/Al hybrid crash box was compared with that of original aluminum crash box. It was found that the mass of the crash box was reduced by 35.21%, while the specific energy absorption (SEA) and mean crushing force (Fmean) were increased by more than 18% and 46%, respectively. The paper was aimed to provide some references for the design and optimization of composite crash box.
Read full abstract