An Estimation of the Potential of Carbon Fiber Reinforced Thermoplastics for Car Weight Reduction

Abstract

This paper presents an estimation of the potential for weight reduction of applying carbon fiber reinforced thermoplastics to an automotive body. More specifically, the weight change of a steel car body after a material substitution without reduction of body rigidity is evaluated. This is done by altering material properties and thickness of the selected parts of an original FEM model, LS-DYNA input file of the 1996 Dodge Neon developed by National Crash Analysis Center. The reduction in weight of the car body after the material substitution is estimated to be 30%.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Nov 01, 2011
Accession Number
ADA560961

Entities

People

  • Hideaki Murayama
  • Jun Takahashi
  • Kazuro Kageyama
  • Keiichi Nagata
  • Kentaro Goto
  • Kiyoshi Uzawa
  • Tsuyoshi Matsuo

Organizations

  • University of Tokyo

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Energy and Power Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Biomedical And Dental Materials
  • Carbon Fibers
  • Composite Materials
  • Fibers
  • Materials
  • Mechanical Properties
  • Modulus Of Elasticity
  • Plastics
  • Polymeric Films
  • Reinforced Plastics
  • Resins
  • Rigidity
  • Stiffness
  • Thermoplastic Resins
  • Thickness
  • Weight
  • Weight Reduction

Fields of Study

  • Materials science

Readers

  • Industrial Economics
  • Reinforced Composite Materials
  • Structural Dynamics.