A Study on the Energy Absorption Characteristics of CFRP Side Member for Fuel-Efficiency Improvement and Crush Safety

Abstract

Currently, the most important objective in designing automobiles is to focus on environment-friendly and safety performance aspects. For the environment-friendly aspect, the issues relate to the shift towards lightweight automobile production, for improving fuel-efficiency and reducing exhaust fumes. However, in contrast, the issues of the safety performance such as crash safety, comfort level and muti-functional programs demand increase of automobile’s weight. Therefore, the design of automobile should be inclined towards the safety aspects, but at the same time, it also should consider reducing the structural weight of an automobile. In this study, for lightweight design of side member, CFRP side member was manufactured from CFRP unidirectional prepreg sheet. The stacking condition related to the energy absorption of composite materials, is being considered as an issue for the structural efficiency. Therefore, the axial collapse tests were performed with change of the stacking condition, such as fiber orientation angle and interlaminar number. The collapse modes and energy absorption characteristics were analyzed according to fiber orientation angle and interlaminar number.