EVALUATION OF AUTOMOTIVE HOOD AND BUMPER PERFORMANCE WITH COMPOSITE MATERIAL BY PEDESTRIAN IMPACTOR SYSTEMS

The quality and reliability of vehicle safety in the automotive industry has greatly improved over the last years. Automotive manufacturers are constantly investigating the potential for enhancing rigidity for passenger car components and reducing the vehicle's weight costs. Frontal elements such as the hood and bumper are more complex to analyze during the frontal collisions for weight reduction with the same rigidity and shape design. The objective of this study is to examine the crash efficiency of a vehicle's hood and bumper with additive composite materials for enhancement of the design. The system is evaluated with the FE upper legform and adult headform impactor sub-system models. Under EEVC WG17 regulations, finite element simulations are performed with a sedan vehicle model. Analysis of the head impact on the car hood, subsequent head acceleration and HIC values were analyzed using pedestrian impactor. Differences in simulation results are examined for steel and composite material for better material selection. To estimate the weight reduction and pedestrian protection, a comparison between the composite material and the steel material is performed for the sedan vehicle. The study, thus, examines safety issues regarding the new material Carbon fiber-reinforced plastic (CFRP) for vehicle front-end and whether it would be less safe to use during frontal collision for weight reduction and comprehension behavior on pedestrian injuries.