A Numerical Study for Novel Thin-Walled Compound Structures Made of PPR Material Reinforced with AL Shells

Abstract

Thin-walled compound structures are usually utilized as improved impact energy-absorbing members in the structures of aircraft and automobiles because of their high energy absorption capacity via progressive plastic deformation. Although these thin structures have outstanding impact performance, high manufacturing costs are a big issue that has the potential to increase vehicle prices. High quality and lightweight are also important fundamentals in the manufacture of absorber devices. Hence, in this numerical and experimental study, novel thin-walled compound structures made of polypropylene random copolymer (PPR) and aluminum alloy (AL 6082 T6) were proposed to provide a reasonable solution for these issues as possible. Static Structural Analysis in ANSYS Workbench was utilized to simulate three types of thin-walled structure models made of these suggested materials under static axial loads and full plastic conditions, namely PPR, AL, and the novel PPR-AL-PPR. The purpose of that is to compare crashworthiness properties among each model and investigate the mechanical behavior of a failure, crush force efficiency and energy absorption capacity for each model. The results observed that the novel model (PPR-AL-PPR) is the optimal type in terms of improvements in crashworthiness properties in comparison to other traditional models, where the crush force efficiency and energy absorption capacity increased numerically by approximately 26% and 107%, respectively. The data have been validated with experimental results, and most of these findings were rather compatible. In conclusion, the PPR material reinforced by AL shells can significantly improve the crush force efficiency and the energy absorption capacity of thin-walled structures. Hence, the novel model suggested could be applied to vehicles and aircraft structures as a good absorber device.