Optimizing the crashworthy behaviors of hybrid composite structures through Taguchi approach

Crash boxes are safety elements generally made of metallic materials and mounted on the chassis of vehicles to prevent possible injuries to driver and passengers by absorbing the energy generated during a collision and ensuring integrity of vehicle. In order to save fuel and reduce harmful gases released into the environment, the proportion of metallic materials used in vehicles is decreasing and being replaced by composite materials. While composite materials are as durable as metallic materials, they are preferred because they are lighter. In this study, circular composites consisting of glass (S1), aramid (S2), carbon (S3), and hybrid combinations of aramid‐carbon‐glass (S4), carbon‐glass‐aramid (S5), and glass‐aramid‐carbon (S6), all with epoxy resin matrices, were produced using the vacuum infusion method and investigated. Crush parameters, maximum peak loads and specific energy absorption of hybrid tubes with different fiber types and winding order were compared. S3 tube had the best energy absorption performance among all samples of 257.288 Joules, while the worst energy absorption performance was obtained for S2 tube with 30.944 Joules. Among the hybrid samples, the best result was determined as 166.50 Joule with hybrid S5. Although the energy absorption capacities of hybrid composite tubes were close to each other, they had lower results for energy absorption and specific energy absorption than S1 and S3. For specific energy absorption, as with energy absorption, the best result was obtained with S3, while the lowest result was obtained with S2.Highlights The aim of this study is to evaluate the performance of composite crash boxes. The effect of fiber type and hybridization was examined. Specific energy absorptions and maximum contact forces were compared. Cylindrical samples were produced by vacuum infusion. The variation of damage depending on fiber type was investigated.

Hybridization effect on energy absorption capacity of composite crash boxes

Erkek,

Kosedag,

Adin

2024

Assessing the crashworthiness of nanocarbon‐filled glass fiber reinforced epoxy composite tubes under axial loading

Hegazy,

Awd Allah,

Seif

et al. 2024

This research aimed to understand how the incorporation of nanocarbon powder (NCP) influences the crashworthiness performance of glass fiber‐reinforced epoxy (GFRE) tubular components, potentially offering insights into improving the safety and resilience of structures or vehicles. Consequently, the crashworthiness behaviors of circular tubes made of GFRE with varying amounts of NCP was studied. Utilizing wet‐wrapping through hand lay‐up technique, GFRE tubes were fabricated with various weight percentages of NCP, that is, 0, 0.25, 0.50, 1, 2, 3, and 4 wt.%. Following that, the crashing load, total absorbed energy against displacement responses, and deformation histories of these tubes under quasi‐static axial loading conditions were calculated and tracked. As part of the crashworthiness analysis, critical indicators were evaluated, including initial peak load (), total absorbed energy (U), mean crash force (), crash force efficiency (CFE), and specific energy absorption (SEA). The findings reveal that the maximum , U, , and SEA were noted at 0.5 wt.% of NCP, with increasing percent's of 30.80, 12.17, 12.16, and 7.50, respectively, compared to the unfilled tube. While, the CFE was recorded by 3 wt.% of NCP with an enhancement of 16.67%. It is worth to note that, the findings reveal that the inclusion of NCP increases crashworthiness metrics up, that is, , U, , and SEA to a concentration of 0.50 wt.% NCP. However, beyond this point, there's a notable decline in performance.Highlights The GFRE tubes were filled with various wt.% of NCP. The planned tubes were made using hand lay‐up methods. The tubes were subjected to axial compression loads to examine their crashing behavior. The crashing load and absorbed energy versus displacement responses for tubes were exposed. The experimental results were analyzed and discussed.

Compression behavior and design optimization of triggered glass fiber reinforced polymer square tubes

Baykasoğlu,

Erdin

et al. 2024

Glass fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP) composite tubes have become increasingly popular in crashworthiness applications. On the other hand, square section GFRP tubes are prone to damage in a catastrophic failure mode in the early stages of the crushing process. At this point, triggering mechanisms have great potential to ensure deformation in progressive mode and improve the compression performance of GFRP tubes. Motivated by these facts, this paper aims to optimize the compression performance of square GFRP tubes by implementing notch‐type triggering mechanisms. The effects of notch width, number and length on the axial compression response of tubes were investigated to determine the optimal trigger configurations that would maximize specific energy absorption (SEA) and minimize peak crushing force (PCF). Experiments were conducted based on Taguchi L9 orthogonal array design, and Taguchi coupled Weighted Aggregated Sum Product Assessment (WASPAS) method was employed for optimizing multiple responses. The optimization results revealed that the proposed trigger mechanisms induced progressive crushing by preventing catastrophic failure, thereby significantly improving the compression performance of GFRP tubes. In particular, the results showed that the PCF of intact GFRP tube decreased by up to 38%, while SEA increased by up to 130% with the help of proposed trigger mechanism.Highlights The compression performance of square GFRP tubes improved by notch‐type triggering. The notch width, length and number were chosen as design parameters. Taguchi experimental design was used to find the best configuration of design parameters. The optimum configurations were examined through the entropy‐WASPAS approach. The results revealed that significant improvements can be achieved using trigger mechanism.