Abstract:

A structural design of an aluminum-alloy front-bumper system was proposed with considering good
crashworthiness and light-mass, and its crash performances were numerically simulated. A retainer and a
holder were added to the aluminum-alloy front-bumper system of a certain developing car to strengthen crashbox
rear-end. A full-frontal rigid-battier impact collision was simulated based on an explicit finite element method
by using HyperWorks and LS-DYNA soft wares with a vehicle mass of 1.55 t and an initial speed of 32.4 km/h.
The result shows that the improved structure provides a stable reactive force with a stable peak of 130 kN and
absorbs a total energy of 31.70 kJ in 25 ms. Its total mass is only 4.08 kg being the 2/3 of the one made from
high-strength-steel. Therefore, the system structure meets the demands of good crashworthiness and lightmass.

Key words: vehicle safety, front bumper system, crashworthiness, light-mass, structural design, aluminum
alloy, finite element