Composite Structures 32 (1995) 491-499

0 1995 Elsevier Science Limited

Printed in Great Britain. All rights reserved
O263-8223/95/$9.50
0263-8223(95)00078-X

Development of the composite bumper beam

for passenger cars

Seong Sik Cheon,a Jin Ho Choib & Dai Gil Leea

aLaboratory for Advanced Composite Materials, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology Kusong-dong, Yusong-
gu, Taejon-shi, Korea 30.5-701
‘Daewoo Heavy Industries Ltd, Changwon-shi, Kyungnam-do, Korea 641-120

The fuel efficiency and emission gas regulation of passenger cars are two
important issues in these days. The best way to increase the fuel efficiency
without sacrificing safety is to employ fibre reinforced composite materials
in the body of cars.
In this work, a new composite bumper that has two pads at the ends of
the bumper was developed. The two pads were designed to hit the front
two tyres of the car when the bumper brackets collapsed during collision.
The end of the bumper beam was designed to have a tapered section to
absorb energy by progressive buckling when the pads hit the rims of wheels
after collapsing tyres.
The composite bumper beam was made of glass fibre fabric epoxy
composite material except the elbow section. The elbow section was made
of carbon fibre epoxy composite material to increase bending stiffness.
From the static bending test of the prototype composite bumper, it was
found that the weight of the composite bumper beam was only 30% that of
the steel bumper beam without sacrificing the static bending strength.

INTRODUCTION bumper bracket, engine and other parts of the

car absorb the impact energy of the car through
It has been known that a front crash in pas- collapsing. In this case deceleration of passen-
senger cars is the most fatal accident among gers usually becomes larger because the bumper
traffic mishaps. Much effort has been made to brackets and other parts of the car cannot
reduce injury from the front crash using air absorb effectively the large impact energy of
bags and energy absorption bumpers. Recently, cars compared to the bumper beam. Therefore,
in order to reduce the weight of cars and bumper beams that are installed inside of bum-
increase energy absorption capacity, most pas- per fascias have been attempted to absorb more
senger cars employ engineering plastics impact energy.*
bumpers that are usually made of polypropylene In this work, in order to know the collision
or polycarbonate/PBT alloy. Also reinforced characteristics and effectiveness of the bumper
plastics bumper beams made by compression beam, the front crash tests of the cars with and
moulding with SMC (Sheet moulding com- without steel bumper beam were :performed.
pound), RTM (Resin transfer moulding) and From the collision tests, it was found that the
RIM (Reaction Injection moulding) are suc- bumper beam made of steel tubes could
cessfully applied.’ decrease the magnitude of deceleration at 48
Although the role of bumpers is to absorb the km/h (30 miles/h) front crash test. However, the
collision energy, it usually only satisfies the steel bumper beam added 200 N to the weight
S-mile/h collision regulation and the impact of the car.
energy is not absorbed sufficiently at higher The weight of cars can be reduced signifl-
speed collision of the automobile. If the car cantly and also impact characteristics can be
collides with speed larger than 5 mile/h, the improved if car structures are manufactured
491
492 Seong Sk Cheon, Jin Ho Choi, Dai Gil Lee
using polymer matrix fiber reinforced composite
materials, since they have high specific stiffness
(E/p), specific strength (S/p), and damping
characteristics.3’4 Therefore, the hybrid compo-
site bumper beam made of glass fibre epoxy
composite and carbon fibre epoxy composite
was investigated to increase the energy absorp-
tion capability of the bumper beam during front
crash. Also, the steel pads that were attached to
the ends of the bumper beam were investigated
to increase energy absorption capacity through
collapsing the front two tyres of cars.
During the collision test, the deceleration
curve with respect to time was recorded and
used to calculate the force boundary conditions
of the bumper beam and other parts of the car.
On the basis of this calculation, the composite
bumper beam was designed using ANSYS, a
commercial finite element analysis package
developed by Swanson Analysis Systems, Inc.,
Pennsylvania, USA. Also, the energy absorption
capacity of the tapered sections at the ends of
the composite bumper beam during buckling
was analysed by finite element method and the
specimens which were prepared by the analysis
were tested with an Instron material testing
system in order to determine the optimal value
of the taper angle.5,6
The mould for the composite bumper beam
was fabricated and the prototype composite
bumper beams were manufactured. The static
bending test of the prototype composite bumper
beams was performed using an Instron and
found that the weight of the composite bumper
was less than 30% of the steel bumper beam
without sacrificing the static bending strength.
FRONT CRASH TEST OF STEEL BUMPER
BEAMS
Figure 1 shows the configuration of the bumper
beam that has two pads at the ends of the
beam. The two pads were employed in order to
absorb energy during collision through collaps-
ing the front tyres and tyre rims.
Three circular steel tubes whose ultimate ten-
sile strength and strain are 240 MPa and 0.23,
respectively, were bent into the bumper shape
and connected parallel by welding. The welded
steel bumper was put into the bumper fascia
made of polypropylene. The gap between the
steel bumper beam and the bumper fascia was
filled with polyurethane foam. The weight of
PAD
BUMPER BEAM /
Fig. 1. Configuration of the bumper beam with the two
pads.
the manufactured steel bumper beam was 200
N. The collision test was performed using a
small passenger car weighing 9500 N. In order
to compare the energy absorption characteris-
tics of the steel bumper beam, a same model
car with the conventional bumper without the
steel bumper beam was tested also. In order to
make the weights of the two cars the same, a
sandbag weighing 200 N was added to the car
with the conventional bumper.
The deceleration signals from the left and
right sides of the lower part of the B-pillar and
the left and right sides of the engine room were
obtained using accelerometers during collision.
Figure 2 shows the magnitude of the decelera-
tion of the cars with the conventional and the
steel bumper beam.
In Fig. 2, the magnitude of the deceleration
of the car with the steel bumper was larger than
that of the car with the conventional bumper
during the initial collision period because the
front tyres imposed force on the pads of the
steel bumper beam. However, the magnitude of
the maximum deceleration of the car with the
steel bumper beam was smaller than that of the
car with the conventional bumper: the magni-
tude of the maximum deceleration of the car
with the steel bumper beam was 33 g (gravity),
while that of the car with the conventional bum-
per was 43 g. Furthermore, the steel bumper
beam absorbed 23% more impact energy than
the conventional bumper. Therefore, it was con-
cluded the steel bumper beam had better
energy absorption characteristics based on the
head injury criteria. Although the energy
absorption characteristics of the steel bumper
beam was good, the 200 N weight increase was
not desirable. Therefore, it was determined to
design and manufacture the composite bumper
beam using glass fibre epoxy composite for the
section that requires strength and carbon fibre
 Composite bumper beams 493

a : 13g - 16g
b : 2g ~ 2.5g
c : 8g ~ 9g

0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1

Time (set)

Fig. 2. Deceleration curves of the cars.

epoxy composite for the section that requires Table 1. Properties of composites
stiffness.
Prepreg Glass Carbon
fibre fibre
(fabric) (uni)
DESIGN OF THE COMPOSITE BUMPER
Tensile modulus El_ 36 GPa 134 GPa
BEAM Yield strength 0.680 GPa 1.8 GPa
Ply thickness 0.18 mm O-15 mm
The material data of the composite materials
were obtained by tensile test using specimens.
Table 1 shows the properties of the two compo-
sites.
The box type cross section of the composite Load analysis during collision
bumper beam was employed because it gives
high bending stiffness and is easy to manufac- The collision analysis7 for the composite bum-
ture compared to the tubular shape. Since there per beam is only possible if the impact
was space limitation in the bumper fascia, the characteristics of all the structures of cars are
outside dimension of the beam was fixed to be known and the mechanical properties and
40 mm x 40 mm. The two main bumper beams impact characteristics8 of the composites are
and another small beam whose cross section previously determined, which is a difficult task.
was 20 mm x 40 mm were adhesively bonded as Therefore, in this work, the boundary condi-
shown in Fig. 3. The small bumper beam was tions obtained using deceleration graphs of the
employed for the initial energy absorption dur- car with the steel bumper beam during front
ing collision. Based on the force boundary crash test were used in the design of the com-
conditions calculated from the deceleration posite bumper. The strength and stiffness
curves of Fig. 2, the thicknesses of the cross analysis were performed using a commercial
section of the composite bumper beam were finite element software, ANSYS 5.0. In the
determined by finite element method. analysis, 225 elastic beam elements were used
494 Seong Sk Cheon, Jin Ho Choi, Dai Gil Lee

CROSS
CR
SECTION OF A-A
144kN
I ---

t
68kN 68kN f
4kN 4kN
Fig. 4. External loads and reaction forces at the first
step.

Fig. 3. Configuration of the composite bumper beam.

212kN

and only half of the bumper beam was analysed

due to the symmetry.
The analysis was performed in two steps
whose boundary was determined by the time at
which the pads of the bumper touched the rims
of the front two wheels after collapsing the two
tyres.
(a) First step
The deceleration a in Fig. 2 was originated
from
the load acting on the brackets (136 kN), and b
from the load acting on the front two tyres (8
kN) before collapsing of the tyres.
Figure 4 shows the force boundary conditions
of the bumper beam at the first step. From
FEM analysis, the maximum stress of the bum-
per was found to be 560 MPa at the centre of
the bumper beam when the thicknesses of the
main bumper beam and the small bumper beam
were 5.4 mm and 1.44 mm, respectively, which
was obtained in the second step.
During the first step, the transverse displace-
ment should be smaller because the pads would
miss the front tyres if the displacement were
large. Since the width of the tyre employed was
175 mm, it was determined that the maximum
displacements should be smaller than the half
of the width, i.e. 85 mm. The analysis per-
formed by FEM (finite element method)
showed that the displacement of the end of the
bumper was 84 mm when the 144 kN load was
applied on the bumper beam. Since the total
transverse displacement was less than 85 mm,
the dimensions of the bumper so far deter-
mined were used in the manufacture of the
composite bumper beam. Since the steel spacer
was neglected in the analysis, the actual dis-
68kN
t
68kN 1
38kN 38kN
Fig. 5. External loads and reaction forces at the second
step.
placement will be smaller than the calculated.
(b) Second step
During the second step, the pads located at the
ends of the bumper beam were resisted by the
rims of the wheels after collapsing the tyres.
The total load on the bumper beam was 212 kN
because the load resisted by the brackets was
136 kN (a in Fig. 2) and the load resisted by the
rims of the wheels was 76 kN (c in Fig. 2, the
upper value of c in Fig. 2 was selected to be 25
g in order to decrease the magnitude of maxi-
mum deceleration for the composite bumper
beam). Figure 5 shows the force boundary con-
ditions on the bumper beam at the second step.
When the thickness of the glass fabric epoxy
composite was 5.4 mm (30 plies), the analysis by
FEM showed that the maximum stress at the
centre of the bumper beam was 675 MPa. Since
the tensile strength of the glass fabric epoxy
materials was 680 MPa, the thickness of the
cross section of the composite bumper beam
was determined to be 5.4 mm. Then, the thick-
ness of the smaller composite beam located at
the front side of the two main bumper beams
 Composite bumper beams 495

for the initial energy absorption was determined

as 1.44 mm (8 plies), which is much weaker
than the two main bumper beams.

Buckling test of the tapered ends of the bumper

beam

If the ends of the bumper beam are collapsed

progressively during collision, the energy
absorption capability of the bumper beam can
be improved.’ Therefore, in this work, the ends
of the bumper beam were made tapered. For
the design of the tapered end of the bumper
beam, the starting and end thicknesses
slope of the taper must be determined.
buckling analysis of isotropic materials such as
steel can be performed by FEM analysis, how-
and
The

Fig. 6. Configuration
!I!- 8 plies

5 plies

of the tapered end of the com-

posite bumper.
ever, the buckling analysis of anisotropic
materials such as composite materials is not
easy. lo Therefore, FEM analysis was used only
for the determination of the starting thickness
and end thickness of the taper. In the analysis,
ANSYS 5.0 with 3-dimensional 8 node isopara-
metric elements was used. The slopes of the
taper were determined by compression tests.
From the analytical and experimental results,
the starting and end thicknesses of the taper for
progressive buckling of the ends during collision
were determined to be 1.44 mm (8 plies) and
0.9 mm (5 plies), respectively. Figure 6 shows
the configuration of the tapered end of the Fig. 7. Tapered end specimen for the composite bumper
composite bumper. beam.
When the slope of the taper was small, crack
rather than buckling would initiate.“‘12 How-
ever, the energy absorption would be small if the slope 20 mm/3 plies was employed in the
the slope was large. Therefore, the slope of the design of the composite bumper beam. Figure 9
taper was determined by the compression test shows the photograph of the progressive buck-
of the specimens representing the end of the ling behaviour of the tapered specimen with
composite bumper beam. L=20 mm.
The specimens which had four different
tapered lengths (L=5, 10, 20 and 30 mm) were
tested. Figure 7 shows the tapered end speci- MANUFACTURING OF THE COMPOSITE
men for the composite bumper beam. Tests BUMPER BEAM
were performed by an Instron with the test
speed of 2 mm/min. The mould for the composite bumper beams
Figure 8 shows the compression test results of was designed and manufactured with stainless
the specimens of Fig. 7. From the tests, it was steel plates. Figure 10 shows the schematic dia-
found that when L was 30 mm, the crack initi- gram of the mould.
ated through the lengthwise direction rather Figure 10(a) represents the main frame of the
than progressive buckling. When L was 5, 10 mould comprised of four plates. The four plates
and 20 mm, it was found that the progressive were assembled with high strength bolts and
buckling of the specimens occurred. Since the nuts whose strength could resist 0.7 MPa inter-
energy absorption capacity of the specimen with nal air pressure during manufacturing process.
L=20 mm was largest, this value which gives Figure 10(b) and Fig. 10(c) represent the end
496 Seong Sk Cheon, Jin Ho Choi, Dai Gil Lee

25 25

20 20

I J
-15 -15

H H
A 10 J 10

5 s-

0 0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40
Dispbcement ( mm ) Displocsment( mm )

(a) (b)

25 25

20 20

I :
-15 -15

1 x
A 10 J 10

5 5

0 0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40
Displacement( mm ) Disphcemenl ( mm )

cc> (4
Fig. 8. Compression test results of the tapered specimens of Fig. 7. (a) L=5 mm (b) L= 10 mm (c) L=20 mm
(d) L=30 mm.

Fig. 9. Photograph of the progressive buckling of the

tapered specimen (L =20 mm). Fig. 10. Schematic diagram of the mould.
 Composite bumper beams
cap and the air seal with an o-ring, respectively.
Figure 10(d) is the plate with a small tube for a
quick coupler for air supply.
Glass fabric epoxy prepreg and uni-direc-
tional carbon fibre prepreg fabricated by Sun
Kyung Industry (Suwon, Korea) were used in
the manufacture of the composite bumper
beam. Since the weft direction of the glass fab-
ric composite was stronger, the weft direction of
the prepreg was aligned with the longitudinal
direction of the bumper beam to increase the
bending stiffness of the bumper beam. Figure
11 shows the manufacture sequence of the com-
posite bumper beam.
The stainless steel mandrel as shown in Fig.
11(a) was wrapped with a vacuum bag and a
non-porous Teflon sheet as shown in Fig. 11(b).
During manufacturing process, it was found that
fibre folding occurred at the elbow section of
the composite bumper beam when the entyre
part of the bumper beam was manufactured
with glass fabric epoxy prepreg. Therefore, after
stacking 8 ply glass fabric on the whole length
of the mandrel as shown in Fig. 11(c), 22 ply
glass fabric epoxy prepreg was stacked except
the elbow section as shown in Fig. 11(d). After
removing the stainless steel mandrel as shown
in Fig. 11(e), the elbow section was bent as
shown in Fig. 11(f). At the elbow section, 20 ply
uni-directional carbon fibre epoxy prepreg was
PRESSUHE INLET
GLASS FlBRE FABRIC/EPOXY PREPREC
B U-V-DIRECTIONAL CARBON FIBRE/EPOXY PREI'REG
Fig. 11. Manufacturing sequence of the
bumper beam.
497
stacked as shown in Fig. 11(g). Then 3 ply uni-
directional carbon fibre epoxy prepreg was
stacked on the whole length of the bumper
beam in order to increase the bending strength
of the bumper beam as shown in Fig. 11(h).
After non-porous Teflon tape was covered on
the prepreg, mould release was coated on the
mould surface. In order to relieve the stress
concentration at the sharp corners of the bum-
per beam, silicon rubber strip whose cross
section was an isosceles right triangle was
attached to the corners of lower part of the
mould to make the corners round. After the
main part of the mould was charged, it was
assembled using the end caps and the sealing
plates as shown in Fig. 11(i). After placing the
charged mould inside the heating chamber of
Fig. 11(j), 0.7 MPa air pressure was supplied
inside of the mould. The temperature of the
heating chamber was monitored by thermocou-
ples and controlled by a temperature controller.
Figure 12 shows the prototype composite bum-
per beam which was manufactured using the
process described before.
One set of the composite bumper beam was
composed of 3 parts as shown in Fig. 12. The
three composite beams were adhesively bonded
using structural adhesives. The total weight of
one set of the composite bumper beam was 55
N, which was less than 30% of the steel bumper
beam whose weight was 200 N.
composite Fig. 12. Photograph of the prototype composite bumper
beams.
498 Seong Sik Cheon, Jin Ho Choi, Dai Gil Lee

The tapered section of the end of the compo-

site bumper beam was made by grinding process
and the two pads were attached to the end of
the beams using structural adhesive. Figure 13
shows the photograph of the composite bumper
beam with pads and the bumper fascia.
Polyurethane foam was filled between the
bumper beam and the bumper fascia to distrib-
ute the impact load and increase the energy
absorption during collision.

BENDING TEST OF THE COMPOSITE

BUMPER BEAMS

The static bending stiffness and strength of the

composite bumper beam were tested using an
Instron material testing machine to compare
the calculated results with the tested results. Fig. 14. Photograph of the composite bumper test.
Figure 14 shows the photograph of the compo-
site bumper test and Table 2 shows the Table 2. Comparison between theoretical and experi-
mental results
comparison results between the two.
The calculated value of the transverse dis- F. E. analysis Bending test
placement at the end of the composite bumper
External load 8 kN 8kN
beam without spacers by FEM analysis was 5 Transverse 5mm 6mm
mm under 8 kN load and the test result gave 6 displacement
mm. Taking into the difference of the load
boundary conditions between the FEM analysis
and the test as shown in Fig. 15, it was con-
cluded that the analysis for the determination of
the thickness of the cross section of the compo-
site bumper beam was satisfactory and reliable.
After this stiffness test, the steel spacers were
installed and the composite bumper was tested

Fig. 13. Photograph of the composite bumper with pads Fig. 15. Force boundary conditions in (a) FEM analysis,
and the bumper fascia. (b) test.
 Composite bumper beams 499

determined to be 8 plies at the start point of

taper, 5 plies at the end of taper. The appro-
priate slope of the tapered section was
determined to be 20 mm/3 plies through com-
pression tests of the specimens representing the
end of the bumper beam.
Using the fabricated mould for the composite
bumper beam, the prototype composite bumper
beams were made and tested under static bend-
ing load. From the test, it was found that the
weight of the composite bumper beam was
about 30% of the steel bumper beam without
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Displacement ( mm ) sacrificing the bending strength.

Fig. 16. Load-displacement curve of the composite

bumper beam during the bending test.

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under larger loads to simulate the real front
collision test in which the maximum load was 1. Margolis, J. M., Advanced Thermoset Composites, Van
Nostrand Reinhold Company, 1986, Chapter 5.
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kN could not be performed because the two absorption of continuous fibre composite tubes.
steel brackets were buckled at this load. Figure ASME J. Engng Mat. and Tech ., 109 (1987) 72-7.
3. Mallick, P. K., Fibre-Reinforced Composites, Marcel
16 shows the load displacement curve of the Dekker, 1988, pp. 248-56.
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(1969) 613-20.
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