Investigation on use of natural fiber reinforced thermoplastic composites for the automotive bumper beams

Abstract

Biopolymers have more advantages compared to the ordinary newlinepolymers. In automotive components the use of natural fibers has increased to newlinereduce the weight and increase the strength and safety of the automobile newlinecomponents. Natural Fiber Thermoplastic components in the automotive newlineindustry can afford the advantages of weight, cost reduction and recyclability, newlinecompared to conventional materials. The handling of natural fibers in newlineautomotive exterior and interior components is essential to recover ecoefficiency newlineand renewability. This research is focused on the development of newlinepartially eco-friendly injection moulded long fiber reinforced thermo plastics newlinewith natural fiber like jute, kenaf, and sisal by hot impregnation process to improve the desired mechanical, thermal properties, and recycling of the newlinecomposites. newlineIt is very important to give more attention while selecting newlinethe structural components like bumpers. The material selection should meet newlinethe standards like Federal Motor Safety Standards (FMVSS) and Insurance newlineInstitute of Highway Safety Standards (IIHS) . Several materials have been newlineused to develop these shock-absorbing capabilities, such as steel, aluminium, newlineglass mat thermoplastics, sheet molding composites and long fiber thermoplastic. In this research we have chosen the natural fiber reinforced newlinethermoplastic composite material to compare the energy absorbing newlineperformance of the materials during impact testing. The purpose of this newlineproject is to design a bumper which is to improve crashworthiness of the newlinebumper beam. These materials had been studied by impact modeling using newlineusing Finite Element Analysis software, LS DYNA to determine the energy newlineabsorption by analyzing the kinetic energy, displacement and impact force. newlineThe selected materials are compared to each other for the design parameters newlinelike shape, material and impact condition to validate the crashworthiness. newline