Design of a hybrid lightweight energy absorber

Among several problems which might affect the passenger safety during an accidental crash event, the deceleration pulse is one of the most critical. For this reason vehicles are designed to convert the Kinetic Energy occurring in an impact in plastic deformation and to spread the loads due to such events through designed structural load paths. An important role in the kinetic energy absorbing at high velocities is played by the energy absorbers. The energy absorption capability of a crashworthy element or system is largely affected by material properties and structural design. This work deals with a numerical investigation on the energy absorbing capability of a new concept of energy absorber made out of the combination of metal parts and carbon composite materials. A numerical investigation on the parameters which increase the crash performance as well as decrease the weight of such device has been presented in this paper.