Lightweight and safety performance of automobiles are two important factors for automobile designs. In this article, a research on lightweight and crashworthiness of automotive bumper has been conducted. The carbon fiber–reinforced plastic bumper beam is considered to replace the traditional high-strength steel one. The low-velocity impact finite element simulations for the above two bumper beams are performed via LS-DYNA. Furthermore, the energy absorption capabilities and dynamic response characteristics of the carbon fiber–reinforced plastic bumper beam are investigated and compared with the steel one. The results show that the carbon fiber–reinforced plastic bumper beam is of the better energy absorption capabilities and dynamic response characteristics than those of the steel one; the weight has decreased remarkably close to 50%. Meanwhile, the effect of lay-up and wall thickness on the crashworthiness of the carbon fiber–reinforced plastic bumper beam under low-velocity impact is also studied in this article to select appropriate design schemes.

Torsional stiffness is an important parameter judging the performance of composite drive shaft. In this paper, a new mechanical analytical solution of torsional stiffness for the composite drive shaft with balance laminate is derived based on classical lamination theory and mechanical analysis. Finite element analysis (FEA) has been used to calculate the torsional stiffness of carbon fiber-reinforced plastic (CFRP) drive shaft. A torsion test platform has also been constructed to measure the torsional stiffness of CFRP drive shaft specimens. Results of the mechanical analytical solution, FEA, and experiments show that the composite tube with the location of ±45° layers near to the outer surface is larger than the ones with the location of ±45° layers near to the inner surface. The effect of stacking sequence on torsional stiffness is larger in the thick-walled than that in the thin-walled composite drive shaft. The mechanical analytical solution can complement classical lamination theory which cannot reflect the effect of stacking sequence in calculating the torsional stiffness.

The aim of this paper was to investigate bending responses of sandwich panels with aluminium honeycomb core and carbon fibre‐reinforced plastic (CFRP) skins used in electric vehicle body subjected to quasistatic bending. The typical load‐displacement curves, failure modes, and energy absorption are studied. The effects of fibre direction, stacking sequence, layer thickness, and loading velocity on the crashworthiness characteristics are discussed. The finite element analysis (FEA) results are compared with experimental measurements. It is observed that there are good agreements between the FEA and experimental results. Numerical simulations and experiment predict that the honeycomb sandwich panels with ±30° and ±45° fibre direction, asymmetrical stacking sequence (45°/−45°/45°/−45°), thicker panels (0.2 mm∼0.4 mm), and smaller loading velocity (5 mm/min∼30 mm/min) have better crashworthiness performance. The FEA prediction is also helpful in understanding the initiation and propagation of cracks within the honeycomb sandwich panels.

Reducing the vibration of marine power machinery can improve warships' capabilities of concealment and reconnaissance. Being one of the most effective means to reduce mechanical vibrations, the active vibration control technology can overcome the poor effect in low frequency of traditional passive vibration isolation. As the vibrations arising from operation of marine power machinery are actually the frequency-varying disturbances, the H_∞ control method is adopted to suppress frequency-varying disturbances. The H_∞ control method can solve the stability problems caused by the uncertainty of the model and reshape the frequency response function of the closed loop system. Two-input two-output continuous transfer function models were identified by using the system identification method and are validated in frequency domain of which all values of best fit exceeds 89%. The method of selecting the weighting functions on the mixed sensitivity problem is studied. Besides, the H_∞ controller is designed for a multiple input multiple output (MIMO) system to suppress the single-frequency-varying disturbance. The numerical simulation results show that the magnitudes of the error signals are reduced by more than 50%, and the amplitudes of the dominant frequencies are attenuated by more than 10 dB. Finally, the single excitation source dual-channel control experiments are conducted on the floating raft isolation system. The experiment results reveal that the root mean square values of the error signals under control have fallen by more 74% than that without control, and the amplitudes of the error signals in the dominant frequencies are attenuated above 13 dB. The experiment results and the numerical simulation results are basically in line, indicating a good vibration isolation effect.

The design of lay-up has a great influence on the mechanical properties of carbon fiber–reinforced plastic drive shaft. In this research, the stress states of each layer in the carbon fiber–reinforced plastic drive shaft were studied, which were different under opposite torque directions. The Tsai–Wu criterion was used to judge the torsional stability of the composite laminates. The data from finite element analysis showed that torsional capacities of a stacking sequence vary greatly with torque direction, and reasonable lay-up design can reduce the difference. Torque direction should not be ignored when designing a carbon fiber–reinforced plastic drive shaft.

The existing motor frame is made of metal materials. In this paper, a carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) motor frame, which uses material damping to reduce vibration amplitude, which is proposed to design and manufacture low-vibration motors. The damp ratio of the CFRP motor frame is calculated by the damp prediction model based on strain energy, which is verified by the combination of the finite element method and experiment. The vibration characteristics of the CFRP frame motor are studied experimentally and compared with that of the metal frame motor. The results show that the CFRP frame motor has good vibration reduction. The amplitude reduction is up to 5 times higher than that of the metal motor frame, which proves that the damping vibration reduction of the CFRP motor frame has a good application value.