Thermoplastic Solution for Electric Vehicle Battery Protection

Light-weight solutions are gaining traction in the development of Electric Vehicles to improve the overall range of the vehicle. One key focus area is to replace metallic structural members with thermoplastic solutions as they contribute to the major weight of the vehicle. However, since the structural components influence the crashworthiness requirements of the vehicle such as frontal, side and rollover impact, the design of the lightweight solutions need to be robust. Rocker panel structures are situated at the bottom of the lateral edges of the vehicle and are intended to absorb the energy during a side crash, protecting the battery from intrusion and shock. Rocker reinforcement is one application targeted by OEM’s to reduce weight and carbon footprint compared to the conventional metallic solutions. In this paper, we discuss the design and development of rocker reinforcements using SABIC’s Specialties NORYL GTX^TM resin. A representative part is built to evaluate the impact performance of the material and to establish a correlation in CAE modeling. Accurate modeling of plastic behavior is critical for OEMs to use these materials during the product development. Exclusive material models for polymers such as Semi-Analytical Model for Polymers (SAMP-1) in LS-DYNA® are generated and used to predict the impact behavior. Further, a prototype of the application is built to demonstrate component level performance and material predictability. The thermoplastic based rocker reinforcement solution has the potential of being up to 30% lighter and generate lower CO₂ emissions when compared with the incumbent aluminum solutions.