Experimental and numerical investigation of full scale impact test on fibre-reinforced plastic sandwich structure for automotive crashworthiness

In this work, the application of fibre reinforced plastic (FRP) sandwich structures, with a particular focus on aramid fibre tufted sandwiches is being studied for automotive crashworthiness during edgewise impact using impact testing and numerical simulation. This work uses prior coupon data for scaling into a subsystem of a vehicle floor. A novel manufacturing process where Kevlar tufting is inserted through the dry preforms and the core is introduced. Subsystem testing then demonstrates the scalability of the sandwich system into a floor assembly. The specimen exhibits crushing with significant energy absorption. Numerical modelling is then used to validate the test result and demonstrate the simulation capability. Using commercial finite element software (Abaqus) with composite crushing add-in (CZone), the crushing of the sandwich and facesheets can be simulated with good agreement with the test results.