Title: Crash behaviour of a carbon fibre floor panel

Authors: M. Carrera, J. Cuartero, A. Miravete, J. Jergeus, Kaj Fredin

Addresses: Institute of Materials Science of Aragon, University of Zaragoza, Spain. ' Institute of Materials Science of Aragon, University of Zaragoza, Spain. ' Institute of Materials Science of Aragon, University of Zaragoza, Spain. ' Volvo Car Corporation, Sweden. ' Volvo Car Corporation, Sweden

Abstract: The engineering design of a floor pan structure to meet existing requirements on torsion and bending stiffness of a reference steel floor while reducing its weight by 50% and the number of parts by 70% is discussed here. The crashworthiness of the composite floor pan design is evaluated by means of the commercial PAMCRASH explicit Finite Element software package by reproducing the same loading and support conditions of the EuroNCAP pole side impact crash test. The numerical results are then compared against the experimental data from two crash tests and the results confirm that a good degree of confidence can be used in the numerical simulation of the crash behaviour of textile composites.

Keywords: floor pan structures; carbon fibre; numerical simulation; torsion; bending stiffness; crash tests; crashworthiness; automotive composites; vehicle design; automobile industry; finite element method; FEM; side impact; textile composites; floor panels.

DOI: 10.1504/IJVD.2007.013643

International Journal of Vehicle Design, 2007 Vol.44 No.3/4, pp.268 - 281

Published online: 10 May 2007 *

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