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A Review on Automotive Bumper Beam Design and Analysis

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DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.23423.23205

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 Journal of Automotive Engineering &Technology
Volume 5 Issue 1

A Review on Automotive Bumper Beam Design and Analysis

Kishor Rambhad1, Venkateshwara Sutar2, Pradip Sonwane3, Shubham Suryawanshi3,

Mahesh Thigale4
Assistant Professor1, Student
Department of Mechanical Engineering
JSPM Narhe Technical Campus, Pune, India-414141
Corresponding Author’s email id: kishorsrambhad@gmail.com

Abstract
Automotive bumper beam is a vital component to prevent passenger’s life and
vehicle from injury and damage caused by severe accidents. Automobile
bumper system is subdivided into front and back portion of automobile. The
purpose of bumper is to absorb energy during low speed impact. For fuel
efficiency and emission gas regulations, reducing the mass of occupant cars
by using composite structures is very important. Pedestrian prevention is one
of the key areas for safety measures during road accidents all over the globe.
This paper shows the case study on automotive bumper beam. In this paper,
the study on design, analysis and performance assessment for optimum design
and material sustainability was carried out. This paper also represents the
study at of crashworthiness design for functionally graded foam-stuffed
bumper beam and energy absorbing device in front bumper beam, severity of
car bumper region in automobile-to-pedestrian effect injuries and weight
saving potential of diverse materials.

Keywords: - automotive bumper; bumper beam; crashworthiness design;

impact strength; passenger safety

INTRODUCTION bumper beam is to soak up the energy of

In passenger cars bumper beams are one of collision[1]. The front and back structure
the structures. Its design &production of vehicle is automobile bumper which
should be prone achieve good impact absorb the impact during low velocity.
sustainability. The principal reason of Usually bumper systems main components
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 Journal of Automotive Engineering &Technology
Volume 5 Issue 1

are bumper transverse beam, stays. Impact million cars annually at the end of 2020
absorbing materials connected to the and due to limited petroleum resources
structural components and cover. That has price of petroleum based product will
both look and safety need[1–3]. Vehicle increase [7]. Natural fibre composite offers
industrialist and engineers are more substantial opportunities for renewable,
attracted towards the vehicle biodegradable & recyclable material &
crashworthiness and light weight designs. from sustainable sources at the same time.
automotive bumper is the first component natural fibre composite have low cost,
which absorb the impact energy during the Production energy requirements device
crashing and undergo deformation. One of wearing rate, health and protection risk
the vital uses of bumper beam is to damp and additionally excellent formability,
the effect load and energy to the left and acoustic properties and thermal insulation
right-side crash containers and properties; regardless of those benefits a
longitudinal rails and uniformly as few regulations together with hydraulic
probably which ends up decrease in properties, low impact power and low
deformation of the bumper beam. operating temperature are unexpected
Therefore, its layout signifies an important mechanical characteristics and restrict
trouble for complete vehicle[4,5]. The their utility to non-structural and semi-
effect beams need to have excessive static structural automotive components. To
strength and effect energy absorption improve the mechanical properties of
capability, which houses are seldom natural composite hybridization with glass
processed, simultaneously by using fibre offers [8,9].
conventional metal due to the fact steel
which excessive strength have low In 2009, 69069 pedestrian injured and
toughness and vice versa. To obtain high 1717 killed in site visitors twist of fate in
strength & high toughness properties of Japan [10], and 64128 pedestrians had
the impact beams of passenger cars been injured and 1634 killed in visitors
conventional impact beams are made of accident in 2012 [11]. Protection of
high strength alloy steel with several heat pedestrian is one of the key subjects for
treatment [6]. protection measures in visitor coincidence
everywhere in the world. leg harms are
The worldwide automotive production rate most common harm in Japan, 36% of
is increasing & it is estimated to reach 76 vehicle are found in nonfatal prediction
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 Journal of Automotive Engineering &Technology
Volume 5 Issue 1

accident. In most of the road accident many application composite material used
cases pedestrian is hit by vehicle, the in automotive application is dominated by
lower extremities are impacted by front glass fibre reinforced[20].
bumper of the vehicle[10,12].Crash
medium crashes are typically violent Vehicle safety requirement increased
collision due to high relative speed of two frequently due to force by government and
colliding automobiles and result in more insurance companies in almost all
fatality rates and vehicular damage accidents the bumper system is first
[13].With development of society automobile structure that issues collisions
improvement of automobile structure and to some extent which saves the life of
crashworthiness the light weighting can be occupants[21,22], the main roll of bumper
achieved by structure modification or beam is absorbing they impact energy in
material replacement[14–16], for the body collision it is very important to calculate
in white BLW of most cars, passengers the bumper beam section in initial design
cars steel material used, the structure that stage of vehicles [23]. A non-linear finite
gives strength and stiffness to the vehicle element impact analysis is mostly used to
and it single heaviest [17]. The material analyse pedestrians bumper impact
selection and structural design are performance ,but finite element analysis
particularly primarily based on the know- take much time to get result [3,24].
how from single compressive loading
study at of raw foam materials [18,19],for Reasons of material selection are: firstly
several decades polymer composite designs and existing product for better
material had been a part of automatic performance, lower cost, improving
industry, because of favourable properties reliability and decreasing weight and
like high specific compressive and tensile secondly to select material foe new
strength controllable electrical conduction product material selection is a main
low thermal expansion coefficient better product designs consideration since
fatigue opposer suitability for the product overall performance is mainly
manufacturing of difficult shape materials, influenced and calculated by material
reinforced composite materials are highly selection process [25].The crash
used in such present in scenario, they have capability of the bumper should meet all
become alternative of traditional body worldwide regulations ,which were made
material like steel, wood are metals in to protect passengers in an accident
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 Journal of Automotive Engineering &Technology
Volume 5 Issue 1

[26,27].A fully coupled thermos
mechanical model of AA60,63-t6 and
AA60,82-t6 for FSW was developed to
examine the thermal history during the
welding process. Beam is mainly
characterised by bending deformation and
it is member which subjected to lateral
loads .it is widely used in construction,
machinery, vehicle, aerospace and other
engineering field of its universality and
foundation [28].
AUTOMOTIVE BUMPER BEAM
Crashworthiness design for functionally
graded foam-filled bumper beam
Zhi Xiao et al. [4]in 2015 explore the
crashworthiness of novel bumper being
filled with functionally graded form in
order to validate the object bumblebee
model the two experiments at component
and full vehicle levels are conducted
hollow steel bumper beam was used as the
baseline model whose geometrical
configuration of cot bumper beam and
crush boxes as shown in the figure1-5.The
bumper beam includes and outer sheet of
1.2 mm thickness and inner sheet of 1.0
mm thickness and crash boxes are also
composed of thickness and another sheet
of 1.0 mm thickness and 1.6 mm thickness
the bumper Beam has an outer sheet and
another sheet with the same thickness of
1.6 mm the bumblebee has an outer sheet
and another sheet with the same thickness
are 1.6 mm the bumper beam has an outer
sheet and dinner sheet with the bumper
beam has an arc shape with radius of 1490
mm and lateral length of 11 55 mm the
distance between inner sides of crash
boxes in is 924 mm.

Figure 1. Geometrical configuration of steel bumper beam.

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 Journal of Automotive Engineering &Technology
Volume 5 Issue 1

Figure 2. Bending simulation of steel bumper beam

Figure 3.Comparison of bumper beam deformation

Figure 4. Global deformation of baseline passenger car in front rigid wall impact at 50
km/h.
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 Journal of Automotive Engineering &Technology
Volume 5 Issue 1

Figure 5. B-pillar acceleration curve in the front rigid wall impact at 50 km/h.

Energy absorbing system in front bumper
beam
M.M. Davoodi et al.[7] in 2010 focused at
the mechanical properties of a hybrid
kenaf/ glass epoxy composite for usage in
a passenger vehicle bumper beam. A
hybrid fabric, that's fabricated with the aid
of modified SMC technique present a good
mechanical assets purpose by using
implemented stress to yield a strong bond
between the hybrid-reinforced fibres. The
foremost function of a bumper gadget is to
defend the automobile body and
passengers in opposition to collision. The
front bumper machine has of 3 main parts
namely the fascia, the absorber and the
bumper beam. The fascia is generally
needed for look and for reducing the

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 Journal of Automotive Engineering &Technology
aerodynamic drag force, but it cannot
tolerate impact strength, so it's far taken
into consideration a non-structural part.
The absorber is designed to dampen a part
of the kinetic power from a collision. The
bumper system has to satisfy deflection
and crash balance criteria, mounted by
way of customer, regulation and insurance
agencies, which varies in distinctive
nations. The standards for the low-impact
check in European nations is a pendulum
check at 4.0 km/h (2.5 mph) with no harm
to the bumper, and in the USA and North
America it's miles the equal study at 8
km/h (five mph), however harm to the
fascia isn't always considered. Analysing
the actual effect damping behaviour in an
automotive bumper gadget is quite
complex and relies upon on unique
parameters, which consist of quantity,
course, contact vicinity and role of the
carried-out load. The finite detail approach
(FEM) is a suitable non-adverse approach
for analysing the effect overall
performance and approximate fracture
behaviour in the course of deflection and
collision. The bumper module, that is
positioned in front of the front-quit
machine, has the principle obligation of
soaking up the foremost impact load
earlier than a complete collision in severe
injuries. In a low-impact collision, the
deflection of the beam and absorbers in
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Volume 5 Issue 1
their elastic location has the principle role
of initial power damping. In an excessive-
impact collision, if the deflection of the
beam is not able to conquer the preferred
load, the bumper beam breaks, the
absorbers can't damp the extra heavy load,
and the ultimate effect force is absorbed by
means of deformation of the front-stop
device and the body primary body. In
truth, in a low-effect test, absorbers placed
in each ends of the bumper beam, along-
side the bending resistance of the bumper
beam, both cooperate inside the damping
process. Figure 6(a) suggests an exploded
longitudinal pass section view with a
simplified version of the low-impact
energy absorption within the actual
bumper machine. The bumper beam is
fixed via two comparable power absorbers
to the frame fundamental frame, which act
simultaneously (see Figure 6 b). The
bending resistance of bumper beam and
the energy absorbers works together as a
linear mass-spring-damper model that
cooperates inside the energy absorption
method of their very own elastic vicinity.
The amount of deflection relies upon on
their spring coefficient (K), and the
amount of energy absorption depends on
their damping coefficient (C). In fact, each
parameter isn’t steady even in their elastic
areas (see Figure 6(c). Absorbers generally
have lower stiffness so that they may act in
 Journal of Automotive Engineering &Technology
Volume 5 Issue 1

a low-effect collision, however the bumper
beam has a better stiffness for damping
extra hundreds. If the impact load goes
past the elastic damping vicinity, the
strength absorption will go into the plastic
region, main to crushing. In a few
passenger automobiles, the dressmaker
considers adding a rod among the two
aspects of the bumper beam to boom the
bending resistance.
Severity of vehicle bumper location in
vehicle-to-pedestrian impact accidents.
Yasuhiro Matsui et al.[10] in 2011 Studied
the foam material around the rigid front
move member that have a sizable impact
on decreasing the decrease extremity
injury dangers and particularly tibia
fracture danger towards collisions with a
car bumper centre. However, the shape has
little impact on lowering the decrease
extremity damage dangers due to the non-
uniform depth of the foam. The centre of
the bumper and the placement of the
aspect members behind the bumper (i.e.
the automobiles predominant longitudinal
beams) have been determined, respectively
as an effect area as shown in figure 7.

Figure 6. (a) Longitudinal explosive cross section of a bumper system. (b) Traverse cross
section of bumper system. (c) Detail of longitudinal cross section and damping model
system.
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 Journal of Automotive Engineering &Technology
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We described the centre of the bumper on
the way to be placed in step with the
imperative bonnet lock. The legform
impactor become propelled into the
stationary automobile as proven in figure
8. The goal impact speed of the legform
impactor changed into 11.1 m/s (40 km/h).
The backside surface of the TRL legform
impactor turned into set to be on the
identical stage as the ground line in the
interim of touch between the legform and
the bumper floor. The tire stress in each
examined automobile turned into adjusted
to the stress endorsed by using the vehicle
manufacturer. For the cause of simulating
occupants in adult the front seats, 75 kg
weights were positioned on each seat. The
temperature within the study at facility
turned into maintained within the range of
20–21oC during the check software. Table
1 suggests their summarized specs.

Figure 7. Impact positions; the left and right shows the positions with and without bumper
faces, respectively.

Figure 8. Setup for the legform impactor to vehicle impact test.

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 Journal of Automotive Engineering &Technology
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Table 1. Specification of test vehicle

Vehicle Height Weight Engine Front across Foam material

type (cm) (kg) displacement member in front of front
(cc) cross member

Sedan 1 146 1130 1496 Rigid steel Polypropylene

2 151 1390 1990 Rigid steel None

3 154 1120 1498 Rigid Polypropylene

aluminium

SUV 4 171 1550 2354 Rigid steel None

5 168 1400 1998 Low stiffness None

steel

Height 6 165 840 658 None None

wagon

1 Box 7 187 940 658 Low stiffness None

steel

8 188 920 656 none None

Weight saving potential of various for the substitution of HSS through

materials aluminium is represented with the aid of
E. Tempelman [17] in 2011 studied multi- equation 1.
parametric research of the effect of
material substitution on existence cycle As for secondary weight percentages,
strength use and waste generation of industry sources also offer a range of
passenger automobile structures. values: e.g. gives 40% and 47%. For every
Indicative values for primary weight 1 kg saved in the BIW, 0.50 kg is saved in
saving potentials (WSP) between the secondary components for a total
numerous structural substances. The weight saving of 1.50 kg which is obtained
pinnacle row is taken from and the by equation 2.
opposite rows are derived from this; e.g.

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 Journal of Automotive Engineering &Technology
Volume 5 Issue 1

Figure 9. The vehicle life cycle.

Turning to the good differences between study of crashworthiness layout for

the four BIWs we make use of the
considerations and input data over a
lifecycle set out in figure 9.
CONCLUSION
To prevent passenger’s life and vehicle
from damage and harm, bumper performs
an crucial role. Bumper is used on both the
ends of vehicle. The utility of bumper in
vehicle is to damp energy throughout low
pace impact. This paper addresses the
functionally graded foam-crammed
bumper beam and energy absorbing
system in front bumper beam, severity of
automobile bumper vicinity in car to
pedestrian effect accidents and weight
saving capability of numerous materials.
This paper also suggests the case study on
automobile bumper beam. In this paper,
the study on layout, analysis and overall
performance assessment for max layout
and fabric sustainability turned into done.

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 Journal of Automotive Engineering &Technology
Volume 5 Issue 1

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fuel rules, reducing the load of passenger Crashworthiness design for
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