Numerical study on energy absorption performance of hat sectionalCFRP/Aluminum hybrid under three-point bending

In this paper, the effective parameters in the composite case of the hybrid structure in improving the energyabsorption behavior under the transverse loading are investigated. The multi-material hybrid composite systemcomprises of single hat section of aluminum material adhesively bonded to woven carbon fiber plies which havea structure similar to the center pillar of the car and bear a transverse load. The behavior of this structure isdescribed in LS-DYNA software using the finite element method. Initially, to validate the numerical sample,the results are compared with an experimental test; Then, the effect of ply angle and number of layers on theCFRP cases, including hybrid hat section with identical aluminum and hybrid hat section with identical mass,on the energy absorption capacity was investigated by simulation. It was found that only when the number ofCFRP layers reaches a specific value the ones, hybrid hat section performs better than another specimen withidentical mass in energy absorption. Moreover, the influence of ply angle of the tube on the energy absorptionof hat section beams with identical aluminum and the same number of CFRP layers was studied.

Keywords:

Metal/composite hybrid structure , Three-point bending , Energy absorption , Finite ElementAnalysis