Crashworthy Design of Composite Structures Using CAE Process Chain

The materials used in automotive industry should play key role in overcoming the current challenging demands such as increased global competition, need for vehicles with highest efficiency, reduction in costs, stringent environmental and safety requirements. This eventual usage of lighter materials mean lighter vehicles and low greenhouse gas emissions. Composites are getting more recognition and hence being used increasingly in the automotive industry due to their excellent weight specific characteristics such as strength and stiffness. Hence the requirements for simulations along the complete production process chain involving reinforced plastics have increased immensely. The main objective of this presentation is to present a workflow for numerical modeling and simulation of carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) composite structures including computer aided engineering (CAE) process integration. In this regard, a computational constitutive model for anisotropic damage is developed to characterize the elastic-brittle behavior of fiber-reinforced laminated composites. The presented work will introduce and discuss single steps along the process chain with in-house and commercial finite element tool LS-DYNA.