Finite Element Simulation of Dent Resistance For Automotive Rear Bumper

Abstract

In automotive industry, there is an increasing demand for weight reduction. On the other hand extraordinary style for automotive exteriors are used in order to increase number of sales. As a result, the usage of different shapes for exterior bumpers is getting increased. Because of that, finite element simulation of dent resistance for automotive bumpers has become a very important step in early steps of automotive design. In this paper, static dent resistance for automotive exterior rear bumper is investigated by using nonlinear finite element method. The thickness change for different areas of bumper is considered from CAD data. In addition, nonlinear mechanical properties such as plastic behavior of rear bumper material are used in the finite element simulations. In addition, the results that are obtained from physical test are also presented here to compare with the results of finite element simulations to see percentage of correlation. This study is mainly focused on the correlation between finite element simulations and physical test results. The finite element simulation results show us that the percentage of correlation with the physical test results is reasonable. Consequently, due to high percentage of correlation between nonlinear finite element results and physical test results, the nonlinear finite element results should be taken into account in early steps of automotive design in order to reach minimum cost and get the most robust solution to eliminate quality problems which may occur in the future.