The Effect of Hollow Glass Reinforced Epoxy In Absorbing Impact Energy for Vehicle Bumper Application

摘要

Safety is one of important factors which has to be considered in designing automobile in the automotive industry. One of the components related to the automobile safety is bumper. Bumpers are attached on front and rear of vehicle's body in order to protect the body from damage due to low speed crash. In this research, hollow glass microsphere (HGM) reinforced epoxy is used as the material for the bumper since this material has not been applied to this application yet. This research is conducted in order to find the ability of this composite material in absorbing impact energy from low speed crash by using finite element method. Thickness of the bumper varied from 4 mm to 8 mm with 1 mm increment. Low speed collision is simulated by following Economic Commission for Europe Regulation 42. The bumper energy absorption is analyzed and indicated by the internal energy, deformation, and equivalent stress from each bumper's thickness.