Abstract
It is important to satisfy the requirements and standards for the protection of passengers in a car accident. There are many studies on the crushing energy absorption of a structure member in automobiles. In this paper, we have investigated the collapse characteristics and moisture absorption movements of carbon fibre reinforced plastic (CFRP) structure members when CFRP laminates are under the hygrothermal environment. In particular, the absorbed energy, mean collapse load and deformation mode were analysed for CFRP members which absorbed most of the collision energy. Also, variation of stacking angle is important to increase the energy absorption capability. The objective of this study is to evaluate the strength reduction and moisture absorption behaviour of CFRP hat shaped members. Therefore, we have carried our an impact collapse experiment to investigate the difference of absorbed energy and deformation mode between moisture absorbed and non‐moisture absorbed specimens. As a result, the effect of moisture absorption and impact loads of ∼50% reduction in strength occurred.