Crash Analysis of Auto-body Structures Considering the Strain-Rate Hardening Effect

The crashworthiness of vehicles with finite element methods depends on the geometry modeling and the material properties. The vehicle body structures are generally composed of various members such as frames, stamped panels and deep-drawn parts from sheet metals. In order to ensure the impact characteristics of auto-body structures, the dynamic behavior of sheet metals must be examined to provide the appropriate constitutive relation. In this paper, high strain-rate tensile tests have been carried out with a tension type split Hopkinson bar apparatus specially designed for sheet metals. Experimental results from both static and dynamic tests with the tension split Hopkinson bar apparatus are interpolated to construct the Johnson-Cook and a modified Johnson-Cook equation as the constitutive relation, that should be applied to simulation of the dynamic behavior of auto-body structures. Simulation of auto-body structures has been carried out with an elasto-plastic finite element method with explicit time integration. The stress integration scheme with the plastic predictor elastic corrector method is adopted in order to accurately keep track of the stress-strain relation for the rate-dependent model accurately. The crashworthiness of the structure with quasi-static constitutive relation is compared to the one with the rate-dependent constitutive model. Numerical simulation has been carried out for frontal frames and a hood of an automobile. Deformed shapes and the impact energy absorption of the structure are investigated with the variation of the strain rate.