Not only crash performance at high speed, but also the concept of a removable absorber dedicated to low speed impacts (8 km/h to 15 km/h) is studied by PSA (France). This part would be fixed between the bumper and the front-end structure. The requirements for this absorber are the following: (1) at 8 km/h only the absorber participates in the crash and the structure must remain undamaged; and (2) at 15 km/h the absorber is crushed but the deformation of the structure must be limited to the front-end of the rail.The first phase of the design is based on the results of the PSA shock database set up during the EUREKA CAR MAterials (CARMAT) programme and which contains multiple information about the crush performances about the crush performances of different materials. Then a kinematic approach enabled the distance required to absorb the crash energy for a given set of parameters to be calculated. Various types of materials were selected to perform design and experimental studies including the optimised steel solution. The Citroen ZX 1.6 i was chosen as the support vehicle for the technical study which is presented in this paper. (A)
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