Composite Vehicle Bumper Structure for Controlled Impact Buckling
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing vehicle bumpers made of fiber reinforced plastics often break into large pieces upon collision, leading to insufficient absorption of impact energy and a sharp decrease in resistance force.
Innovation Solution
A vehicle bumper design featuring metal beam-extension portions with resin reinforcing ribs joined to three sides, providing a structure that absorbs impact energy by deforming the metal in a buckling manner while the ribs are destroyed, ensuring weight reduction and improved energy absorption.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Weight of moving object
If fiber reinforced plastics are used for integrally molded bumpers to reduce weight, then weight reduction is achieved, but the bumpers break into large pieces during collision resulting in insufficient impact energy absorption
Solution Approach 1:
The bumper employs a composite structure combining metal (aluminum alloy or steel) for the main beam portions with fiber reinforced plastics for the beam extension portions. This composite material approach allows the metal to provide high strength and controlled deformation characteristics for reliable impact energy absorption, while the fiber reinforced plastic extensions maintain lightweight properties and prevent large piece breakage through their destruction pattern.
Solution Approach 2:
Different portions of the bumper are assigned different material properties: the bumper beam portions use metal with high strength and controlled stiffness for reliable impact absorption, while the beam extension portions use fiber reinforced plastics with lighter weight. The resin reinforcing ribs are strategically placed at specific locations to enhance local strength where needed, creating non-uniform local quality that optimizes both weight and reliability.
2Stability of the object's composition
If the bumper is designed with high stiffness to maintain structural integrity, then structural integrity is improved, but impact energy absorption is reduced due to limited deformation
Solution Approach 1:
The bumper design incorporates dynamic deformation characteristics through the metal beam portions that can undergo controlled plastic deformation during impact. The beam extension portions with fiber reinforced plastics are designed to destroy in a controlled manner, transitioning from a rigid structure to a deformed state that absorbs impact energy. This dynamic response allows the structure to adapt to impact forces while maintaining integrity.
Solution Approach 2:
The stiffness parameters of different bumper portions are deliberately differentiated: the metal beam portions have higher stiffness to maintain structural integrity, while the beam extension portions with fiber reinforced plastics have lower stiffness to enable controlled destruction and energy absorption. The resin reinforcing ribs modify local stiffness parameters to optimize the balance between structural integrity and energy absorption capacity.
3Reliability
If resin reinforcing ribs are added to the beam extension portions, then impact energy absorption is improved through controlled destruction, but manufacturing complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The resin reinforcing ribs are integrated with the beam extension portions in an integrally molded structure, combining the reinforcement elements with the main bumper components into a single unified piece. This merging approach eliminates the need for separate assembly steps and reduces structural complexity despite the enhanced impact energy absorption performance provided by the reinforcing ribs.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The design achieves weight reduction and reliable impact energy absorption by finely distributing the load across the metal and resin components, preventing large breakage and maintaining resistance force during collisions.
Implementation Method 1
the reinforcing rib is not merely destroyed, and the reinforcing rib is destroyed while the metal is deformed in a buckling manner
Data Source
AI summary
A vehicle bumper is provided integrally to include metal beam-extension portions on both right-and-left end sides of a metal bumper-beam portion. In this vehicle bumper, the bumper-beam portion and the beam-extension portion include a vertical wall portion, an upper wall portion and a lower wall portion, and a resin reinforcing rib is joined to inner surfaces of a void formed of each of the wall portions. In addition, in this vehicle bumper, an extension dimension of the upper wall portion and the lower wall portion of the beam-extension portion is larger than an extension dimension of the upper wall portion and the lower wall portion in the bumper-beam portion, the resin reinforcing rib in the beam-extension portion is joined to the vertical wall portion, the upper wall portion, and the lower wall portion of the beam-extension portion; and the stiffness of the bumper-beam portion is higher than the stiffness of the beam-extension portion.