Numerical Study of an Automotive Crash Box in Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer Material Using Chang Failure Criteria

This paper discusses novel numerical techniques for studying the damage to automotive safety components in carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) deployed in the automotive industry to protect passengers, high voltage batteries and powertrains from rear impacts. The idea proposed in the manuscript is to use Newmark’s methodology with the FEM for the numerical description of the explicit dynamic model of the components facing the standard impactor, following the Euro NCAP protocol. Using an explicit dynamic Radioss rear crash box, we have successfully demonstrated normal behavior for CFRP materials, where the value of kinetic energy is close to the theoretical value. Moreover, the simulation provides a behavior consistent with previous successful studies because the maximum dynamic time is the same as the total damage (0.10 ms).