A STUDY OF EFFECT OF ENHANCED ENERGY ABSORBER ON PERFORMANCE OF AUTOMOTIVE BUMPER USING FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSIS

A normal automotive bumper system is composed of two energy absorbers that are joined together by a beam of the bumper and the two energy absorbers that are important in the reduction of the impact forces during collisions. In general, the absorptions in the case of the metallic tubular absorber are dissipated by progressive folding and it is observed that most crashes which happen in the real world are at oblique angles of the axis of the absorber. In order to respond better to such conditions, the researchers have proposed buckling initiators to increase energy absorption in oblique impacts. This paper explores the behavior of the conventional absorbers (when not modified) and enhanced absorbers (when buckles initiators are employed) through the finite element analysis in LS-DYNA. The findings imply that, in the bumper assembly, the improved absorbers are not a big difference in the overall energy absorption. Rather, the bumper beam which forms the structural connection between the two absorbers, is the primary determinant of the deformation trend and energy absorption properties of the system. These results indicate that there is need to optimize the design of the bumper beam and improvements in the absorber to realize significant performance in terms of crash.