Composite Load Floor Material Modeling and Meta Model Development

Material modeling of Load floor made with Composite material is a challenging part in commercial finite element analysis (FEA) software. This paper presents the development of a material model for the prediction of composite properties. It specifically focuses on composites constructed with paper honeycomb as the core material and with glass fiber as the facing material. For automotive load floor applications, load deflection behavior is the most significant indicator of performance. The data accumulated from the testing of the core and facing materials individually is used to predict the load deflection behavior of a composite constructed structure. The prediction level of newly developed material modeling results are compared with physical test results of load floor from various vehicle platform.

Also this paper describes the metamodel generation using the load floor simulation results for various load floor samples. Environment supports like Trunk scuff, Quarter trim and battery tray are considered in this validation. This study gives an insight on how the metamodel helps the designer in selecting the optimum design parameters for the specific load and in the estimation of the maximum deflection for given design parameters. The meta model tool is more user friendly and it can be used in the design concept evaluation stage before the CAD model is readily available.