Effect o
Effect of the Strengthened Ribs in Hybrid Toughened Kenaf/
Glass Epoxy Composite Bumper Beam
M.M. Davoodi 1,
S.M. Sapuan 1, Aidy Ali 1, D. Ahmad 2
1. Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing
Engineering, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor,Malaysia; 2. Department
of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, Universiti Putra Malaysia,
43400 UPM Serdang,Selangor, Malaysia; [email protected]
Abstract: The
growth of car production governs new environmental regulations “End-of Life
Vehicles” (ELV) to enforce car manufacturer to substitute synthetic material to
bio based materials. Low mechanical properties of natural fibre composite
confine their application in automotive non-structural components.
Hybridizations of kenaf with glass fibre along with epoxy PBT toughening did
not completely fulfill the required impact property of the developed
bio-composite bumper beam to substitute with typical material of the bumper
beam glass mat thermoplastic (GMT). Therefore, in the first stage of the geometrical
improvement “concept selection” concluded that the double hat profile (DHP) is
the most suitable concept out of eight bumper beam concepts when six parameters
with different weight are determined. In second trial, the usage of strengthen
rib is employed to improve the impact property and performance of the bumper
beam for utilization of hybrid kenaf/glass fibre as a car bumper beam.
[Majid Davoodi Makinejad, Mohammad Sapuan Salit, Aidy
Ali, Desa Ahmad. Effect of the Strengthen Ribs in Hybrid Toughened
Kenaf/ Glass Epoxy Composite Bumper Beam. Life Sci J 2012;9(1):210-213].
(ISSN:1097-8135).http://www.lifesciencesite.com. 30
Keywords: Bumper beam; Finite element analysis; Hybrid material; Natural fibre composite
