Crash performance of glass fiber reinforced polypropylene tubes

Abstract

It has been found that the energy absorption capacity per unit weight of composite structural parts under axial crush load is much better than that of steel or aluminium [1, 4]. For that reason, they are increasingly used in crash-loaded structures of any kind of vehicles, especially in automobiles. Beside special composite crash elements, complex composite structures, such as longitudinal girder, cross members, mudguards, under bodies and even complete car bodies, are subjects of research. The investigations on the crash behavior of composites focused mainly on crash elements with simple geometry, e.g. tubes with cylindrical and quadratic cross-sections and cones [1–3, 5, 6]. Nowadays the good crash performance and energy absorption capacity of composite tubes with thermoplastic matrix systems has to be pointed out [2, 3]. This can be attributed to higher fracture toughness and ultimate strain of thermoplastics resulting in better mechanical damping and less tendency for crack propagation. So composites with thermoplastic matrix systems exhibit high damage tolerance. This, together with an industrial-scale manufacturing technique and benefits due to easy recycling, means that thermoplastic composite structural parts have great potential for future applications [4].