Fibre reinforced polyurethane foam to increase passive safety of vehicle occupants

In order to reduce development and certification time and costs for composite automotive structures, efficient computational methods are needed to predict structural integrity and failure of these structures under dynamic loads, such as appearing in the crash and impact scenarios. Modern finite element codes provide a good basis for simulation of complex dynamic events, particularly in case of the head impact of vehicle occupants. This process includes especially modelling of the complex behaviour of the materials used in the car interior. In present paper the glass mat reinforced polyurethane foam of higher densities is characterised experimentally and modelled with finite element methods in the purpose of increasing the passive safety of the occupants. By using the degenerate biphase material model in PAM-CRASH the behaviour of the reinforced foam is modelled at structural macro level. Furthermore, the damage and energy absorption ability of different ribbed absorbers, fabricated from the composite and real automotive components, A pillars are considered under impact loadings. The constructed finite element material model leads to close agreement with the performed experimental results.