Material Characterisation and Numerical Modelling of the Interior Trim of B-Pillar during Airbag Deployment

Abstract

With the widespread use of thermoplastic materials in the vehicle interior trim, such as PP and PP-ABS, the vehicle design to maintain plastic trim integrity during dynamic impact like airbag deployment and head impact requires increased reliability and accuracy. The main focus of this project is on the interior trim of the B-pillar. When an automobile suffers from a side impact, the process of airbag deployment occurs creating an explosive force, which loads the interior of the B-Pillar. Due to the side airbag deployment, two common failure modes could appear during the first iteration of the design, i.e.1. Local trim break.2. B-Pillar Hang-up.This dissertation is focused on the first failure mode. In order to predict the B-pillarbehaviour under airbag deployment, LS-Dyna 3D as a solver and elastic-plastic material constitutive model (MAT24) has been chosen. A range of material tests were performed to obtain stress-strain curves under uniaxial tensile and pure shear stress states, based on which the data sheet for MAT24 was created. Several cases have been simulated to understand the possible failure situations of the interior trim of the B-Pillar. It is also realised that more advanced SAMP-1 material constitutive model should be considered in the future study, which, however, requires more extensive material testing programme, than that required by MAT24.

Date of Award	31 Dec 2016
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	The University of Manchester
Supervisor	Qing Li (Supervisor)