Modeling the Impact Response of HDPE Fuel Tank Material

Abstract

As a part of the effort on modeling method development for crashworthiness prediction of vehicle structures, this paper examines the impact response of a multilayer high density polyethylene (HDPE) fuel tank material. The deformation behavior of HDPE under lateral impact was investigated by flexural experiment using three-point bending, and by driven dart impact with different velocities at ambient and −40°C. The large deformation and fracture behaviors of multilayer HDPE under impact loading at different rates and temperatures were simulated using LS-DYNA®.