Experimental investigation and evaluation of numerical modeling approaches for hybrid-FRP-steel sections under impact loading for the application in automotive crash-structures

A large body of work has studied the energy absorption of metallic and composite tubes undergoing crushing. Similarly, reinforcements of metallic structures with composites have also been studied. By contrast, composite tubes with metallic reinforcements (composite-intensive) have not been investigated, although they may offer benefits in terms of robustness or cost over both composite as well as metallic tubes. Here, composite materials with metallic reinforcements were tested under dynamic axial loading in order to study the effects of major design parameters on the energy absorption and load uniformity behavior. Significant benefits could be identified, particularly when considering cost aspects. Two numerical approaches for modeling the adhesive interface between the two discrete material phases were evaluated in terms of accuracy and efficiency in crash simulations. The simplified modeling technique comprising two layers of shell elements rigidly tied at the interface proved to be generally applicable to the evaluation of structural concepts in an early vehicle development stage.