Abstract
Increasing demand to reduce fuel consumption inevitably drives investigation for weight saving in carbody constructions. Beside metallic materials such as aluminum and magnesium, which are used as lightweight replacement for conventional steel elements, also the new technology of organic structural foam contributes to a decrease of metal gages and replaces complex and heavy sheet metal reinforcements.
The use of organic structural foam is predominantly targeted to lightweight crash performance, enhanced torsion stiffness, NVH-improvement and durability.
The principle for all applications is based on sandwich structures between two metal or plastic plates. Due to high compression stability and energy absorbance of organic structural foam these sandwich structures show excellent bending resistance and deformation stability.
Organic structural foam can be described by Finite Elemente Analysis, which enables engineers to precalculate the performance and to compare it with other construction possibilities. Supported by CAD-work the optimal placement and the best performing design about the structural foam can be defined. Validation through box beam and real car body segment tests confirm expected behaviour on crash resistance and stiffness.