Cellbond

Car manufacturers nowadays routinely use FEA as a sophisticated tool in the development of new car models. Virtual testing can save time and cost as it allows to reduce real life testing, especially of full-scale testing prototypes.

In line with this trend, Cellbond has made use of its significant knowledge of the behaviour of honeycomb and deformable barriers in crash testing, and developed its own FE models.

Part of this was an extensive programme of component testing in order to correctly characterise the material behaviour under typical crash impact conditions. This included both quasi-static and dynamic testing, with various sample materials, impact speeds, angles, shapes etc. Cellbond was able to make use of its own in-house test facilities to carry out this work. As a further stage, full-scale barriers were tested under several impact conditions, and finally the model was validated against car models. Results have shown very good correlation with real tests.

This project was launched in 2002 and took the form of a collaboration with a car manufacturer and Arup who have vast experience in FE modelling.

As a result, Cellbond is able to correctly simulate the behaviour of our honeycomb barriers under typical crash scenarios. This tool can be used in parallel with the development of hardware barriers, with the aim of offering software models to our customers at the same time as new prototypes. We have also worked together with Aprosys on the CAE modelling of the AE-MDB and expect have a model concurrently with the final barrier design.

FE barrier models are commercially available in LS Dyna from our partner Arup. The model range includes all current standard barriers:

• Frontal Offset Barrier (EEVC, EuroNCAP, IIHS, FMVSS 208)
• EEVC Advanced-2000 Side Impact Barrier (EEVC, EuroNCAP)
• NHTSA Side Impact Barrier (FMVSS)
• IIHS Side Impact Barrier