Optimum Topology of Structural Foam for Crashworthiness Applications

The use of structural foam in the automotive industry is gaining more acceptance for lighter and stronger body construction. However, its use requires new approaches in order to obtain optimal configurations. Along this line, a computer procedure to optimally design the topology of structural foams under crash loads is presented. The procedure is applied to a front rail subject to frontal crash as a demonstration of the technology. It is concluded that this procedure is a viable approach that enable design engineers to reduce the design time, and weight of new structural foam components.