Effect of Adding Expanded Polypropylene and Polyurethane Foams on Crashworthiness Response of the Aluminium-Reinforced Honeycomb Structure

This chapter aimed to find the effects of adding Expanded Polypropylene and Polyurethane foams on the crashworthiness response of reinforced aluminium honeycomb structures. Cell size and cell wall thickness were taken as 20 mm and 0.11 mm respectively for a honeycomb of node length 25 mm. Expanded Polypropylene (EPP) foams of densities of 20, 40, 60 kg/m3 and Polyurethane foams (PU) of densities 16, 29 and 42 kg/m3 were added to either side of the reinforced sheet. Finite-element simulations for foam-filled reinforced honeycombs were performed under quasi-static loading conditions using finite element code LS-DYNA. The effect of varying foam-filling percentages in reinforced honeycomb on crashworthiness parameters was also studied. The effect of varying PU foam density by keeping EPP foam density constant showed an increase in crashworthiness parameters peak load, mean load and specific energy absorption but crush force efficiency showed fluctuating behaviour in all the cases. Crashworthiness of both distinct type of structure showed superior performance as foam density increases.