• Composites Research
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• 제34권1호
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• pp.35-46
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• 2021

This paper aims to reduce weight by replacing the reinforcements of the B-pillar used in vehicles with CFRP(Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastics) and GFRP(Glass Fiber Reinforced Plastics) from the existing steel materials. For this, it is necessary to secure structural stability that can replace the existing B-pillar while reducing the weight. Existing B-pillar are composed of steel reinforcements of various shapes, including a steel outer. Among these steel reinforcements, two steel reinforcements are to be replaced with composite materials. Each steel reinforcement is manufactured separately and bonded to the B-pillar outer by welding. However, the composite reinforcements presented in this paper are manufactured at once through compression and injection processes using patch-type CFRP and rib-structured GFRP. CFRP is attached to the high-strength part of the B-pillar to resist side loads, and the GFRP ribs are designed to resist torsion and side loads through a topology optimization technique. Through structural analysis, the designed composite B-pillar was compared with the existing B-pillar, and the weight reduction ratio was calculated.