Progressive crushing of a fiber reinforced composite crash-box for a racing car

Abstract
Because of their superior mechanical properties in combination with a relative low density Fiber Reinforced Composites (FRC) are of great potential in the area of lightweight transportation systems. The present paper describes an experimental and numerical investigation on a frontal energy absorbers for a SR2 prototype, made of a FRC structure. The crash-box is a structure that has the only function to absorb the total kinetic energy during the impact in a controlled mode, so that all the damage is contained in it. Besides, the crash-box does not require a post-crush integrity, but must absorb energy without high peak load, to avoid high deceleration to the pilot. The present research program included some crash tests, in the conditions related to a frontal impact at the velocity of 12 m/s, in order to acquire information on the dynamic behavior of the mentioned structure. A finite element model is then developed using the non-linear explicit dynamic code LS-DYNA. The numerical simulation results accurately predict the deformation and the average deceleration recorded in the tests.