Bumper System Development to Improve Compatibility per Proposed IIHS Bumper Barrier Criteria

This paper describes a proposed process to design and develop automotive bumper systems to meet the new bumper barrier criteria proposed by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS). The paper describes the details of the test as disclosed by the IIHS at the time of writing this paper (1, 2). In addition, the paper describes the performance of some of the bumper systems currently in production when subjected to this new test. The paper also describes a process to simulate the test with the help of some newly developed computer aided engineering (CAE) models and the resulting correlation to physical tests. Furthermore, the paper demonstrates how by using these correlated models the bumper-to-bumper compatibility can be improved through design parameters of the energy absorber. Finally, some of the differences in capabilities of injection molded energy absorbers vs traditional EPP foam energy absorbers with respect to the new IIHS deformable barrier test are explored through comparative testing.