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Vehicle crashworthiness is an important aspect to consider when designing a vehicle to ensure the safety of the occupants. Besides this, vehicles are also designed to reduce weight for better fuel economics. One possible approach to reducing weight without compromising vehicle safety is by looking at new designs and usage of composite materials, along with the usage of computational models to reduce time and cost. Hence, this paper displays the experimental results of a carbon fiber reinforced closed top-hat section subjected to both quasi-static and dynamic crushing loading. The results were used to validate the computational model developed in the study. The specimens were made of carbon composite prepregs MTM-44 sheets stacked at the alternative orientation of ±45° and 0°/90°, where 0° direction coincides with the axis of the member. The samples were prepared by using a mold and carbon prepregs under vacuum bagging followed by curing in an autoclave. Trigger initiation was applied to ensure the specimens demonstrated a stable crushing mode of failure during the test. Experimental investigations were carried out under the ambient conditions with different loading conditions, and different kinetic energy ranges (2, 3 and 6 kJ). Experimental data was used to validate the finite element analysis (FEA). The maximum errors obtained between experimental and FEA for mean load, mean energy absorption, and crushing displacement were 13%, 13% and 7%, respectively. The numerically obtained results were in strong agreement with the experimental data and showed that they were able to predict the failure of the specimens. The work also showed the novelty of using such structures for energy absorption applications.

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Regarding crashworthiness, many published works have focused on designing thin-walled structures for frontal collisions compared to side-impact collisions. This paper presents an experimental investigation and finite element modelling of a carbon-reinforced thin-walled top-hat section subjected to quasi-static and dynamic transverse bending loads at different impact speeds. The top-hat sections and their closure assembly plates were made of MTM44 prepreg carbon. The specimens were manufactured by vacuum bagging. Dynamic work was performed to validate the results obtained from the finite element analysis (FEA). The predicted results are in good agreement with the experimental results. The study also showed that the peak load and energy absorption owing to dynamic loading were higher than those under static loading. In the four-point bend analysis, the stacking sequence affected the energy absorption capabilities by 15–30%. In addition, the distance between the indenters in the four-point analysis also affected the energy absorption by 10% for the same impact condition, where a larger distance promoted higher energy absorption. The study also demonstrated that a top-hat shaped thin-walled structure is suitable for deep intrusion beams in vehicle doors for side-impact crashworthiness applications.

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