Enabling the development of safe lightweight next-generation vehicles using high-performance composite materials

拟议的研究的目的是调查使用高性能碳纤维增强塑料（CFRP）复合材料制造的快速高压树脂传递模塑（HP-RTM）工艺的前端汽车结构部件的重量大幅减少的潜力。这些材料因其高比强度和刚度特性、低密度（1.5 g/cm 3）和碰撞条件下的高能量吸收能力而闻名，并且已被确定为能够在大众市场车辆中大幅减轻重量的关键材料。尽管由于高成本和制造时间的限制，迄今为止高性能CFRP复合材料还没有被集成到汽车的正面碰撞结构中，但新开发的加工技术（例如HP-RTM）可以提供所需的快速生产率，这将允许CFRP实现进入大众市场的车辆。该研究将解决基本材料表征和零件制造工艺挑战，以开发准确的冲击模拟平台，这将需要将高性能轻质CFRP复合材料集成到下一代汽车的能量吸收结构中。将评估固有的加工缺陷，并将其与CFRP复合材料的高度复杂的变形响应相结合，以预测CFRP部件的冲击性能。作为验证，将在各种载荷条件下对具有代表前部车辆结构的不同几何形状的CFRP部件进行测试，并根据实验对模型预测进行评估。

The proposed research aims to investigate the potential for substantial weight reduction of front end automotive structural components using high performance carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) composite materials fabricated by a rapid high pressure resin transfer moulding (HP-RTM) process. These materials are known for their high specific strength and stiffness characteristics, low densities (1.5 g/cm3) and high energy absorption capabilities under crash conditions, and have been identified as key materials for enabling substantial weight reductions in mass market vehicles. Although high performance CFRP composites have not been integrated into frontal crash structures of automobiles to date due to high cost and manufacturing time constraints, newly developed processing techniques such as HP-RTM can provide the required rapid production rates that will allow the realization of CFRPs into mass-market vehicles. The research will address fundamental material characterization and part fabrication processing challenges in order to develop an accurate impact simulation platform, which will be required to integrate high performance lightweight CFRP composites into energy absorbing structures of next-generation automobiles. The inherent processing defects will be assessed, and coupled to the highly complex deformational response of the CFRP composite in order to predict impact performance of CFRP parts. As a validation, fabricated CFRP parts with differing geometries representative of frontal vehicle structures will be tested under various loading conditions and the model predictions will be assessed against the experiments.