Energy Absorption and Strength Evaluation for Compressed Glass Fibre Reinforced Polyester (GRP) for Automobile Components Design in Crash Prevention Scheme

Abstract

This paper utilized the compressive tests results to establish some critical mechanical properties and crashworthiness parameters that may be required to design GRP composites of polyester matrix in automobile structures. Third order polynomial function was used with numerical methods to establish the elastic properties whish could not be established due to sensitivity of the Monsanto tensometer used to obtain the compression results. This study showed that the finite difference method captured the general trend of experimental solution giving optimum value of compressive stress as 23.78MPa at strain of 0.018 and elastic limit of 12.01MPa at 0.01 strain through finite difference analysis while the solution with third order polynomial interpolation gave optimum compressive stress as 36.57MPa at 0.018 strain and elastic limit of 12.143MPa. Also established with compression data is the compressive or buckling moduli of 1.2GPa. Gauss-Legendre two point rule was used to evaluate the area under the stress-strain curve which measured the amount of energy absorbed per unit volume of sample from where the energy absorbed at ultimate strength of 0.025J/M 3 - 0.22 J/M 3 , energy at fracture of 0.62 J/M 3 - 1.62 J/M 3 and the absorbed specific work 0.001J/Kg are established.