Abstract:

An optimized car bumper beam with crashworthiness and lightweight was designed applying Tailor
Welded Blanks (TWB) structure with high-strength steel plates to a bumper beam, and combining the multiobjective
discrete optimization method. A model for original bumper beam and a model of TWB bumper beam
were established by using Hypermesh software, and then validated by LS-DYNA software. The outer and the
inner plates of the TWB beam were made of 5 blanks with different thickness. The targets of iterate optimization
were improving the energy absorbing and controlling the mass with different material parameters and different
thickness parameters based on the Three Point Static Loading Test simulation of the TWB beam. The results
show that the energy absorbed increases 81.66% for the optimized TWB beam with only an increase of 8.96%
for mass. Therefore, the optimized TWB beam meets the demands of crashworthiness and lightweight with a
better deformation mode and better collision load characteristics.

Key words: vehicle safety, bumper beam, tailor welded blanks (TWB), discrete optimization, three point static loading test