Composite Materials In Automotive Bumper Reinforcement: A Reveiw

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deflection in low-speed impact and by deformation in high-
Abstract— Automobile bumper reinforcement plays a vital role in
the absorption of accidental impact energy. The new norms speed impact [2].
towards pollution control and an advantage of using bio
degradable materials have created interest among many
researchers. This study critically reviews the study made by the
researchers for the replacement of the conventional bumper
material with a hybrid composite made of synthetic fiber and
natural fiber combination and its limitation. The result may help
the designer and researcher performing material
characterization for the development of newer material for the Figure
defined application. 1: Parts of Bumper
Index Terms—Bumper reinforcement, Hybrid composite,
Natural fiber, Shear thickening fluid and Synthetic fiber
Conventionally the material being used in bumper
reinforcement are Steel and Aluminium which contributes to
I. INTRODUCTION
Material conservation and control of environmental hazards the weight of the passenger car vehicle leading to lower

are some of the major hurdles in the current automotive Mechanical efficiency leading to environmental hazards. This

industry. As per the survey the annual passenger car is the criteria which evokes research on development of new

production rate will reach 76 million by 2020 [1]. New car series of material for the replacement of currently using

regulations such as end of service life and emission norms of a materials which should possess higher strength to weight ratio.

vehicle are forcing the manufacturers to consider the

environmental impact of their production and possibly shift Many research have been carried out to substitute the above

from the use of conventional material to agro based material said bumper reinforcement materials by using composites

such as hybrid composites. which exhibits higher strength to weight ratio. One such
material being tried to replace steel was Kenaf/glass

Poor Mechanical properties and certain manufacturing reinforced epoxy composite having good Mechanical

limitations have restricted the usage of these agro based properties such as Young’s Modulus and Tensile Strength, but

materials in structural, semi - structural and non - structural lower Impact Strength. Major requirement for bumper

automotive components. However many researchers have reinforcement material is impact strength which has not been

proved that the hybridization of natural fibers with some of the met by kenaf/glass reinforced epoxy composite [1].

synthetic fibers exhibits good Mechanical properties.

Research has shown that about 2.2 kg of the weight of the

In today’s scenario, researchers are trying to replace few of the passenger car can be reduced by replacing the conventionally

current passenger car components with hybrid materials which produced metal bumper reinforcement by using some

have very good strength to weight ratio. One such component advanced polypropylene composites [3]. Also research has

being tried to replace in vehicle is bumper reinforcement confined to the development of other hybrid composite for the

which is as shown in the figure 1. Bumper reinforcement is a above said properties using coir, jute blending with some

component that absorbs the accidental kinetic energy by synthetic fibers and matrix.

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On the other hand for the application such as impact resistant kenaf/glass reinforced epoxy composite for passenger car
armor with good damping properties have been developed by bumper beam” Elsevier, Journal Of Materials & Design,
using certain polymeric based composite and Shear volume 21, 2010, PP 4927–4932.
Thickening Fluid [4] which exhibits superior impact strength [2] M.M. Davoodi, S.M. Sapuan, A. Aidy, N.A. Abu Osman,
and penetration resistance, evoked the research on the A.A. Oshkour and W.A.B. Wan Abas, “Development process
utilization of the Shear Thickening Fluid in the production of of new bumper beam for passenger car: A review” Elsevier,
hybrid composite either in the form of coating to fiber or in Journal Of Materials & Design, Volume 40, September 2012,
the form of blending with matrix components in small PP 304–313.
fractions. [3] B. NAM, S. KO, S. KIM AND D. LEE, “WEIGHT
REDUCTION OF AUTOMOBILE USING ADVANCED
It was also found that some of the mechanical properties of the POLYPROPYLENE COMPOSITES” 18TH INTERNATIONAL
polymer based composites may also increase by varying the CONFERENCE ON COMPOSITE MATERIALS.

resin matrix/hardener ratio. It was seen that the varying III. [4] R. CRISTIAN NEAGU, PIERRE-ETIENNE
resin/hardener ratio results in change in the deformability BOURBAN AND JAN-ANDERS E. MÅNSON,
shape of the composites. “Micromechanics And Damping Properties Of Composites
Integrating Shear Thickening Fluids” ELSEVIER, Journal Of
Research confined to natural fibers such as sisal, kenaf, hemp, Composite Science & Technology Volume 69, Issues 3–4,
jute and coir reinforced with polypropylene composites 2009, PP 515–522.
processed by compression moulding technique showed [5] Paul wambua, Jan Ivens, Ignaas Verpoest, “Natural fibers:
comparable tensile and modulus result for kenaf, jute and coir can they replace glass in fiber reinforced plastics” Elsevier,
fibers but, hemp outperformed kenaf with respect to impact Journal of Composite Science & Technology Volume 63,
strength. Coir fiber composite displayed higher impact Issue 9, 2003, PP 1259-1264.
strength, but their tensile properties remains on lower side.[5] [6] D. Saravana Bavan and G. C. Mohan Kumar, “Potential
use of natural fiber composite materials in India” Journal of
India being the largest producer of the natural fibers such as Reinforced Plastics and Composites, 2010.
Jute and Coir [6] an attempt can be made to develop one such
material which can be the replacement for the bumper ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
reinforcement in automotive industry. The authors acknowledge the encouragement and support
received from the Management of Kammavari Sangham and
II.CONCLUSION
Principal/Director - Dr. T V Govindaraju, K S Institute of
From the above discussion it can be stated that natural fiber
Technology, Bangalore.
such as jute, coir, kneaf etc. can be used as alternate materials
for hybridization with synthetic fiber to vary the strength of
the composite. Inclusion of third element such as shear
thickening fluid can also be experimented to seek the higher
strength of the composite.

References:
[1] M.M. Davoodi, S.M. Sapuan, D. Ahmad, Aidy Ali, A.
Khalina and Mehdi Jonoobi , “Mechanical properties of hybrid