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Light-weight adhesively bonded aluminum hat sections under axial compression can be used for energy absorption as a crash component in the vehicle. In order to obtain a comprehensive evaluation on safety and performance of this type of structure, the roles of adhesives as well as the aluminum adherend were investigated, and it was necessary to establish an appropriate FEA model which can be used for structural failure prediction and energy absorption response. It was found that the global behavior of short length adhesively bonded hat sections under axial compression is primarily governed by large plastic buckling deformation, and that the main contribution of the adhesive is to present separation of the flanges and corresponding reductions of effective flange thickness.

The automobile industry is seeing an increased need for the application of plastics and their derivatives in various forms such as fiber reinforced plastics, in the design and manufacture of various automotive structural components, to reduce weight, cost and improve fuel efficiency. A lot of effort is being directed at the development of structural plastics, to meet specific automotive requirements such as stiffness, safety, strength, durability and environmental standards and recyclability. Fiber reinforced plastics being viscoelastic in behavior, are susceptible to the rate of loading or the strain rate, especially at high temperature conditions. Bonded sections made up of fiber reinforced plastics therefore require the understanding of their mechanical behavior at different strain rates, such as low rate loading (to simulate quasi-static loading) and high strain rate loading (to simulate impact type loading).