Research Of Test Technology And Method On Bumper Crashworthiness

The automotive impact safety has been a research Hotpoint in the world today. As one of factors that affect crash safety, bumper is receiving more and more consideration. And how to improve bumper crashworthiness performance ,protect relative parts and pedestrians and reduce insurance fee are main questions concerned by governments, society ,manufactures and consumers. The computer simulation is an easy method used to evaluate bumper crashworthiness, but the test results are more reliable than simulation.China automotive technology and research center is one of national car quality testing labs with excellent facility and technology. Based on the bumper crashworthiness testing project conducted in CATARC ,some research projects were performed ,which include bumper standards summarization, test equipment development and test results analysis. The whole paper has several parts as following:On the basis of analysis on the bumper structure and its materials, its protection on automotive parts and pedestrians in low speed impact were discussed, then the crash energy absorption characteristics and protection requirements were put up forward with bumper status and trend analysis.The bumper design and repair features were summarized in detail. In addition to meeting its impact safety need, how to replace or repair damaged parts and reduce maintenance cost are also needed considered in bumper design process. Therefore the bumper cover, carrier, crash can and enforcement parts should be designed carefully to get optimum results.Then the bumper performance and test standards were introduced and discussed. With except of the insurance standards, the main regulations include FMVSS581,ECE R42 and GBl7354-1998. the correlation and differences were analyzed in detail. The bumper effect on pedestrians protection and insurance were also listed with consideration of their growing requirements and importance.According to the GB standard requirements, test equipment was developed to conduct bumper performance checking. The test bench is composed of pendulum lifter, cross-member lifter, pendulum brake and control console. And it can perform test to meet impact speed, acceleration and force parameters requirements. With the standards becomes more and more strict, new test equipment is also needed to speed development.Some low speed pendulum impact tests were conducted on a typical energy absorption bumper with own developed bench. The bumper's energy absorption characteristics was draw from the data recorded during tests, and the results show the test bumper can reduce impact correctly and protect quite well. Based on the test results analysis, the energy absorption bumper is considered as one of research and development direction in the future.Now most bumper made in our country is not ideal in its performance requirement, therefore improvement of bumper protection features has become one of focuses in bumper development. Then the research conducted in this paper will try to be helpful in bumper design and manufacture in our country.