A study of crash boxes with alternative materials referred to energy absorption

Abstract

Nowadays, an automotive industry steadily has been growing and playing a major role on economy development for many years. The crash box is one of the most important parts for safety but it was found that the crash boxes manufactured domestically are not met international standard requirements. This is due to process and material limitation. This process for automotive safety test requires high budget and there is unclear approach for specific test. Therefore, a study of crash boxes referred to energy absorption project was conducted as the alternative materials for product. Consequently, this project was aimed to design and test crash boxes which made from the diversity of the alternative materials such as aluminum, aluminum reinforced by foam, resin reinforced by fiberglass, resin reinforced by water hyacinth and resin reinforced by water hyacinth and husk. In addition, it was also emphasized in studying energy absorption behavior and physical deformation of crash boxes after dynamic and static energy being applied. The experimental works were applied for these tests in partly referenced to US NCAP and ECE R29 standard for automobile collision test. Testing all types of crash boxes indicated that the aluminum reinforced by foam type was able to absorb energy at 189 MJ/m3. It is higher than resin reinforced by water hyacinth and husk at 1 MJ/m3 as 188 times. Furthermore, the comparison of the energy absorption (per unit volume) between the aluminum reinforced by foam type and the steel type from the previous project equivalent 20 MJ/m3 found that it is 8.45 times of difference. While the front impact test was not successful because the size of crash boxes was not suitable for the energy volume. It was a cause for non-available calculation of energy absorption value.