FEM Collision Analysis of Automotive Body Members Reinforced with High Structural Foam

Dynamic bending and dynamic crash tests were performed on a hat-shaped structure. The test structures were made of steel and filled with high structural foam of three different foaming densities. Tests were followed with FEM simulations. FEM simulations have shown that it is important to take account bonding strength between high structural foam and steel. The consideration of bonding made the deformation modes in the simulations correspond to those in the tests. This approach makes it possible to identify the degree of reinforcing required with high structural foam, in the same way reinforcement was determined with steel plates.