Numerical investigation into the effect of various trigger configurations on crashworthiness of GFRP crash boxes made of different types of cross sections

ABSTRACT

Triggers can be implemented in the design of crash box to help in achieving desired deformation pattern, energy absorption and peak force value. In this study, crashworthiness of glass fibre reinforced plastic (GFRP) composite crash box structures with novel geometrically intrinsic triggers has been studied extensively for different types of geometric cross sections. In this study, GFRP crash boxes with four types of cross sections: square, cylindrical, hexagonal and decagonal are considered. Six different types of novel triggers, namely; type-1 slot, type-2 slot, type-3 slot, thickness variation 1, thickness variation 2 and thickness variation 3 are applied to all the types of crash boxes. A comparative numerical analysis is done to study the effect of each trigger on the energy absorption of crash boxes in low velocity impact, based on the ‘Research Council for Automobile Repairs’ test popularly known as the ‘RCAR’ test. Force versus displacement curves were plotted for each case providing detailed insights into the force variation during deformation. The objective of this study is to highlight the effect of triggers on crashworthiness of GFRP crash boxes made of various cross sections and also to showcase the relative effect of each trigger type on the energy and force variation; with the variation of cross section of the crash boxes.

KEYWORDS:

• Crash box
• composites
• crashworthiness
• glass fibre reinforced plastics (GFRP)
• RCAR test, triggers

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.