Profiled Beam Energy Absorption Device for Vehicle Structural Components
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing structural components for vehicles lack high energy absorption capability while maintaining lightweight and efficient installation space, particularly in crash scenarios.
Innovation Solution
A structural component featuring a profiled beam with an energy absorption device on its outer surface, incorporating fiber-reinforced plastic materials and a pultrusion method, along with inner chambers filled with foam cores or honeycomb structures, and attachment elements to enhance energy absorption and stability.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If a thicker-walled or unprofiled beam is used, then strength in relation to thrust forces is improved, but component weight increases
Solution Approach 1:
The beam cross-section is segmented into multiple thin-walled chambers rather than using a single thick wall. This segmentation allows the structure to achieve required strength through geometric configuration while maintaining lower weight, as the chambers provide structural rigidity without requiring excessive material thickness.
Solution Approach 2:
The beam is constructed from fiber-reinforced plastic materials, combining different materials with complementary properties. The fiber reinforcement provides high strength-to-weight ratio, enabling the thin-walled structure to achieve thrust force resistance comparable to or exceeding thicker-walled conventional beams while significantly reducing overall component weight.
2Loss of energy
If more energy absorption material is added, then energy absorption capability is improved, but installation space requirement increases
Solution Approach 1:
The energy absorption device is nested within the profiled beam structure, specifically positioned within recesses or chambers of the beam. This nesting approach allows the energy absorption material to be contained within the existing structural envelope, achieving high energy absorption capability without increasing the overall installation space requirement of the structural component.
Solution Approach 2:
The energy absorption device utilizes a crushing element with a structured geometry that enables high energy absorption through controlled deformation. The design employs thin-walled or layered structures that collapse in a controlled manner during impact, maximizing energy absorption per unit volume and minimizing the space required for the absorption function.
3Stability of the object's composition
If additional fastening measures are used, then fixation stability is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The energy absorption device is integrated directly into the profiled beam structure, merging the absorption function with the structural element. The beam's geometry, including recesses and projecting walls, is designed to accommodate and secure the energy absorption device, eliminating the need for separate fastening components and reducing overall device complexity while maintaining fixation stability.
Solution Approach 2:
The profiled beam structure provides self-contained fixation features through its geometric design. The recesses and projecting walls create interference fits or friction-based retention that secures the energy absorption device without requiring additional fastening measures. The structure serves its own fixation function, reducing complexity while ensuring stability during crash events.
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 solution enables high energy absorption with reduced weight and space requirements, ensuring effective force distribution and absorption during crashes, even under oblique forces, without the need for additional fastening measures.
Implementation Method 1
degrades or reduces the energy or force acting thereon by mechanical disintegration. Mechanical disintegration can be understood here as bursting, splintering, crumbling or some other change in shape
Implementation Method 2
the beam can be formed from fiber-reinforced plastic, in particular from glass- and/or carbon-fiber-reinforced plastic
Implementation Method 3
the beam ensures a required component stiffness and supports the energy absorption device such that, in the event of thrust forces acting thereon, the absorption device can crumble in a targeted and secure manner
Implementation Method 4
a fully enclosing wall can apply a sufficient static friction such that the energy absorption device is sufficiently fixed and does not have to be fastened by additional measures
Data Source
AI summary
A structural component, in particular for a vehicle, includes a beam and at least one energy absorption device which is disposed on a portion of the outer surface of the beam. The beam is profiled and has at least one inner chamber.