Design, Manufacturing and Test of CFRP Front Hood Concepts for a Light-Weight Vehicle
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Materials and Methods
2.1. Hood Design Concepts
2.2. Materials and Mechanical Proprieties
2.3. Manufacturing Methodology of CFRP Hoods
2.4. Dimensional Evaluation of the Obtained CFRP Hoods
3. Results
3.1. Experimental Stiffness Investigation of Composite Hoods
3.2. Numerical Analyses of Investigated Hoods
3.3. Discussions
4. Conclusions
- The vacuum bag technology and autoclave curing process is the best procedure to produce very high quality CFRP parts, a fact demonstrated by microstructural analysis and highly dimensional accuracy of the manufactured hoods.
- A designed composite hood that copies the metal parts, by reproducing the same geometry shape and the reinforced ribs, brings the advantage of mass reduction with similar or higher stiffness, but limits the benefits that composites structures have.
- The first composite hood manufactured based on BMD is 2.54 times lighter than a similar steel hood and the improvement in terms of lateral stiffness for this composite hood about a similar steel hood is about 80%. Transversal stiffness is a few times, higher while the torsional stiffness has an increase of 62% as for a similar steel hood.
- The use of sandwich structures to achieve a high stiffness and light structure, a balanced stacking sequence of layers in order to respond to complex requests are the advantages of an FRP design concept that allows, in the case of a car hood replacement of the ribs and the reinforcements, an important additional mass reduction.
- The second hood concept is 22% lighter than the first one. In this case, the outer hood panel subjected to structural improvements by layer architecture offers a mass reduction about 53%. Lateral stiffness is also improved by 42%, while the transversal stiffness is significantly higher. The torsional load case revealed a smaller value, but not lower than for a similar steel hood.
Author Contributions
Funding
Institutional Review Board Statement
Informed Consent Statement
Data Availability Statement
Acknowledgments
Conflicts of Interest
References
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Material | 1A | 2A |
---|---|---|
Test type | Modulus [MPa] | |
Tension (E) | 51,921 | 61,043 |
In plane shear (G) | 24,962 | 29,633 |
Material | 1B | 2B | 3B |
---|---|---|---|
Test type | Modulus [MPa] | ||
Tension (E) | 72,359 | 32,537 | 79,505 |
In plane shear (G) | 35,821 | 12,051 | 35,433 |
Load Case | Lateral | Transversal | Torsional |
---|---|---|---|
Applied force (N) | 500 | 500 | 58 |
Displacement (mm) | 1.73 | 1.18 | 0.73 |
Stiffness (N/mm) | 288.7 | 425.7 | 79.5 |
Load Case | Load Value [N] | Strain εSG1 [μm/m] | Strain εSG2 [μm/m] | Strain εSG3 [μm/m] |
---|---|---|---|---|
Lateral | 500 | 43.7 | 185.2 | 55.6 |
Transversal | 500 | 1.02 | 2.3 | 5.9 |
Torsional | 58 | 5.4 | 2.71 | 0.62 |
Load Case | Lateral | Transversal | Torsional |
---|---|---|---|
Applied force (N) | 230 | 504 | 206 |
Displacement (mm) | 0.65 | 0.54 | 3.71 |
Stiffness (N/mm) | 353.8 | 933.3 | 55.5 |
Load Case | Load Value [N] | Strain εSG1 [μm/m] | Strain εSG2 [μm/m] | Strain εSG3 [μm/m] |
---|---|---|---|---|
Lateral | 230 | 73.8 | 53.3 | 72.8 |
Transversal | 504 | 3.4 | 7.1 | 12.9 |
Torsional | 206 | 18.6 | 27.8 | 15.6 |
Material | Lateral Stiffness [N/mm] | Transversal Stiffness [N/mm] | Torsional Stiffness [N/mm] |
---|---|---|---|
Steel | 162.3 | 75.6 | 58.6 |
Load Case | Lateral | Transversal | Torsional |
---|---|---|---|
Applied force (N) | 500 | 500 | 58 |
Computed displacement (mm) | 1.71 | 1.36 | 0.61 |
Stiffness (N/mm) | 292.4 | 367.64 | 95.1 |
Load Case | Load Value [N] | Strain εSG1 [μm/m] | Strain εSG2 [μm/m] | Strain εSG3 [μm/m] |
---|---|---|---|---|
Lateral | 500 | 48.8 | 180.8 | 53.9 |
Transversal | 500 | 0.91 | 2.1 | 5.4 |
Torsional | 58 | 5.2 | 2.6 | 0.70 |
Material | Honeycomb Core | ||
---|---|---|---|
Young’s modulus [MPa] | E1 = 1 | E2 = 1 | E3 = 255 |
Shear modulus [MPa] | G12 = 10−6 | G31 = 70 | G23 = 37 |
Poisson’s ratio | ν12 = 0.49 | ν13 = 0.001 | ν23 = 0.001 |
Material | Reinforced Frame | Sandwich Structure |
---|---|---|
Young’s modulus [MPa] | 52,085 | 6579 |
Shear modulus [MPa] | 22,855 | 3256 |
Load Case | Lateral | Transversal | Torsional |
---|---|---|---|
Applied force (N) | 230 | 504 | 206 |
Computed displacement (mm) | 0.55 | 0.56 | 3.53 |
Stiffness (N/mm) | 418.2 | 900 | 58.4 |
Load Case | Load Value [N] | Strain εSG1 [μm/m] | Strain εSG2 [μm/m] | Strain εSG3 [μm/m] |
---|---|---|---|---|
Lateral | 230 | 85.8 | 52.9 | 82.9 |
Transversal | 504 | 3.8 | 7.7 | 14.9 |
Torsional | 206 | 19.2 | 30.4 | 17.3 |
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Bere, P.; Dudescu, M.; Neamțu, C.; Cocian, C. Design, Manufacturing and Test of CFRP Front Hood Concepts for a Light-Weight Vehicle. Polymers 2021, 13, 1374. https://doi.org/10.3390/polym13091374
Bere P, Dudescu M, Neamțu C, Cocian C. Design, Manufacturing and Test of CFRP Front Hood Concepts for a Light-Weight Vehicle. Polymers. 2021; 13(9):1374. https://doi.org/10.3390/polym13091374
Chicago/Turabian StyleBere, Paul, Mircea Dudescu, Călin Neamțu, and Cătălin Cocian. 2021. "Design, Manufacturing and Test of CFRP Front Hood Concepts for a Light-Weight Vehicle" Polymers 13, no. 9: 1374. https://doi.org/10.3390/polym13091374