Energy Absorption in Chopped Carbon Fiber Epoxy Composites for Automotive Crashworthiness

In the crashworthiness of automotive structures, the primary issues to the automotive industry are the overall economy and the weight of the material. To reduce the weight and improve the fuel economy, polymer composite materials have replaced more and more metal parts in vehicles. They have the added benefit of being able to dissipate large amounts of impact energy by progressive crushing. To identify and quantify the energy absorbing...