JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #107 - August/September 2016 - 49

Thermoplastic composite firewall for the truck market

Fig. 4: Force/displacement
curve for energy absorption
- correlation between test
and simulation

Fig. 5: ECE-29 regulation:
front crash test

An adhesive materials supplier, Sika,
who selected the right adhesive for the
right materials (TP composite and metal
parts). For the assembly of the composite
firewall parts onto the real truck cabin,
a one-component elastic polyurethane
adhesive was chosen for good adhesion
and crash performance.
g

An assembly fastenings supplier, Bollhoff, who selected the RIVKLE® SFC
and ONSERT® fasteners to facilitate the
integration of the module into the truck
cabin.

g

The composite firewall project

g

g

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The results of the front crash test were
approved by the OEM. The composite
firewall fulfilled the front crash test
requirements (ECE-29* regulation for
the homologation of vehicles for passive
safety).
Finally, the composite firewall fulfilled
the OEM's requirements (durability test
still pending) and give an opportunity to
reach a good level of TRL*(Technology
Readiness Level). This TRL assessment
is very important to introduce new technologies for series applications. Moreover,
prototyping and part testing of a smallscale composite firewall made it possible
to validate and correlate the numerical
laws for the composite and adhesive.

Conclusion
The composite firewall project was a
success story with a strong partnership between several players along the composite
value chain: OEM, Tier 1 manufacturer,
assembly supplier (fasteners and adhesive), chemical company (materials). This

project showed that design and simulation
are keys to fulfil OEM requirements for
lightweight applications. An advanced
materials database (TP composite, PA6
short glass fibre and adhesive) was used
for this purpose.
More information:
www.solvay.com
* TRL is a method that estimates the
technical maturity of a technology (parts
or components) and demonstrated
technology capabilities. The TRL rating
uses a scale from 1 to 9, 9 being the
most mature technology.
* www.unece.org: The UNECE Transport
Division has been providing secretariat
services to the World Forum for Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations (WP.29)
for more than 50 years. The World Forum
has incorporated into its regulatory
framework the technological innovations
of vehicles to make them safer and more
environmentally sound.
Regulation No. 29 (ECE29) provides
uniform provisions concerning the
approval of vehicles with regard to the
protection of the occupants of a commercial vehicle's cab.

g

g

g

Fig. 6: Composite firewall
after a real front crash test;
no failure

No107 August - September 2016

/ jec composites magazine

Feature Wind energy

The milestones of the composite firewall
project were as follows:
CAD, virtual design of the composite
firewall;
Checking the OEM's requirements in a
crash/static finite element analysis (FEA)
and a noise vibration and harshness
(NVH) analysis;
Prototyping a small-scale composite firewall and dynamic lab testing in Solvay's
laboratory to check the correlation
between the tests and FEA simulation for
the composite and the assembly numerical law (Figure 4), but also to check the
adhesion of the glue in real conditions.
Manufacturing the full-scale composite
firewall;
Assembling the firewall on a prototype
truck;
Conducting real tests on a complete
truck to check the OEM's requirements:
- Front crash testing. The correlation
between real tests and front crash
simulation (ECE-29 regulation*) is in

progress (Figures 5 and 6);
- Noise vibration and harshness
analysis;
- Durability testing.

49
http://www.solvay.com http://www.unece.org
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #107 - August/September 2016
