ABSTRACT

Automotive Design with economy, safety and aesthetics have been a

great challenge to design engineers. The safety of the passengers during
vehicle crashes can be ensured to a certain limit by using good bumpers.
A bumper is a shield, made of steel, aluminium, rubber, or plastic .It is a
horizontal bar fixed across the front or back of a motor vehicle to reduce
damage in a collision , but this project is more inclined to off road
vehicles where It is not a safety feature intended to prevent injury to
occupants in the passenger cars but basically designed to protect the
hood, trunk, grill, fuel, exhaust and cooling system as well as safety
related equipment such as parking lights, headlamps and taillights in low
speed collisions during a rough road travel or 4x4 off road Driving..
In this work polystyrene coated steel bumper and a aluminium B390 alloy
is compared with various factors by which the steel bumper has
advantages such as Better Strength, Better Thickness, Good towing
capacity and increasing the traction of the vehicles. The values of Impact
analysis are compared with the Selected Material.

CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION.

WHAT IS OFF ROAD DRIVING ?

OFF ROADING is Craggy , uneven or an activity that includes steering
Vehicles or called Sports utility Vehicles dirt tracks, mountain paths or
desert trails. It is pursued on terrain such as sand, gravel, snow, mud,
rock, grassland, riverbeds (Shallow or Dry water), and other natural
terrain away from unpaved surfaces.
Off-roading is done in all-terrain vehicles (ATVs), both four- and twowheel, like 4x4s, jeeps, snowmobiles, dirt bikes, quad bikes, rock
crawlers and sand rails.
HISTORY OF OFF ROADING
A Frenchman by the name of Adolphe Kgresse was awarded with the
design of the worlds first off-road model.
Kgresse designed a track in the style of a caterpillar, with a flexible belt,
which could be modified to a ordinary car or truck.
A conventional jeep, would have four-wheel drive, high-ground clearance
and low gearing. Nowadays, there is a mind-boggling variety of off-road
vehicles out there for those people who like going on dirt, to choose from
both solidly heavy-duty and all-purpose light-duty.
Off-roading events like the Dakar Rally and the Baja 1000 being among
the most famous. These events are a test of both navigational
competence and vehicle resilience power.

OFF ROADING IN INDIA

Off-roading terrain, while Ladakhs high-altitude desert offers equally

favourable conditions for the activity. Out west in Gujarat, the salt
marshes of the Rann of Kutch make for a unique off-roading experience.
Few Off Road Vehicles opted for Indian Roads
1. Mahindra Thar
2. Toyota Fortuner
3. Mitsubishi Pajero Sport
ATTRIBUTES REQUIRED FOR OFF ROAD ING
Heavy Duty Bumpers
Ground Clearance
Skid Plates
Approach , break-over & Departure Angles
Wheel Articulation
Low End Torque
Tires
High Mounted Air Intake
Tow Points

A Frame
1.1 WHAT IS A BUMPER
A Bumper is a shield made of Steel, Aluminium, Rubber, or Plastic
that is mounted on the front and rear of a passenger car.
The Requirement for new Customised personal vehicles for
Adventure and other Activities have exponentially increased,
A protective device which absorbs shocks and impeding contact.

A CUSTOMISED
BUMPER

1.2 NEED OF A BUMPER:

During low speed collision occurs, the bumper system absorbs the shock
to prevent or reduce damage to the car.
The Truck/Car bumper is designed to prevent or reduce physical damage
to the front and rear ends of passenger motor vehicles in low-speed
collisions especially in Off Roading.
Off Roading Bumpers are not typically designed to be structural
components

that

would

significantly

contribute

to

vehicle

crashworthiness or Passenger/occupant protection during front or rear

collisions.
During a head on crash. The forward or the front side of the Bumper folds
progressively and creates enough Space for the Passenger.
Hence forth the Bumpers designed should have immense strength , Better
energy Absorption capacity and good Stiffness.

1.3 CLASSIFICATION OF BUMPERS

PLASTIC BUMPER - Most modern cars use a reinforced thermoplastic
bumper, as they are cheap to manufacture, easy to fit and absorb more
energy during a crash.
BODYKIT BUMPER - Modified cars often now have a full body kit
rather than just a front and rear bumper. These kits act as a skirt around
the entire body of the car and improve performance by reducing the
amount of air flowing underneath the car and so reducing drag.
CARBON FIBER BUMPER- Carbon fibre body work is normally the
thing of super-cars, but many a car companies, and specialist modifiers,
are starting to use it for replacement body part on everyday cars.
STEEL BUMPER & ALUMINIUM BUMPER- This material worked
well, as it was very strong in a crash, Steel bumpers are very heavy and
dented performance. Aluminium Bumpers are light and have good
strength to weight ratio, but not strong as Steel as car engine design has
improved, steel bumpers have pretty much shifted to off roading trucks.
Depending on the requirement of Steel or Aluminium , the bumpers are
manufactured
1.4 COMPONENTS OF A BUMPER
There are different shapes, models and system for vehicle Bumpers.
Conventional models have corrugated open section areas for installing
some car elements and increasing bending strength of the bumper. Main
parts of the conventional bumper systems are depicted.
Fascia: bumper fascia should have good aerodynamic and aesthetically
pleasing to the consumer but in Off roading Bumpers they are replaced
with Steel or Aluminium.
Energy absorbers: energy absorbers are designed to absorb a portion of
the kinetic energy from vehicle collision. Its types include foam,
honeycomb and mechanical ones. However mechanical absorbers have

several times the weight of foam and honey comb absorber, they receive
limited usage.
Reinforcing beam: Main key component of the bumper and helps to
absorb the kinetic energy and give protection to the rest of the vehicle.

Configuration of common bumper

1.5 MATERIAL PROPERTIES REQUIRED FOR DESIGN
Strength
Toughness
Ductility
Weldability
Durability.
Malleability
1.6 DEFINITION OF THE PROPERTIES
Strength : the strength required to cause permanent plastic deformationYIELD strength but till this point metal is undergoing elastic
deformation. Application of further load or stress will cause plastic
deformation and until the material can no longer withstand the stress
applied and ruptures, this point is called ULTIMATE strength
Ultimate strength of Steel -440 MPa
Ultimate strength of Aluminium -320 MPa
Toughness: defined as the work required to deform one cubic inch of the
metal till it factures or it is the resistance of a material to being broken in
two, High toughness is particularly important for components which may

suffer impact or for components where a fracture would be catastrophic

(pressure vessels, aircraft. Automotive parts).

For Ex: If a load is suddenly applied to a piece of mild steel and then to a
piece of glass the mild steel will absorb much more energy before failure
occurs. Thus, mild steel is said to be much tougher than a glass.
Ductility: Ductility is a measure of how much strain a given stress
produces and also property of a material enabled to drawn out into thin
wire on application of the load. Mild steel is a ductile material. The wires
of gold, silver, copper, aluminium, etc. are drawn by extrusion or by
pulling through a hole in a die due to the ductile property. The ductility
decreases with increase of temperature.
Percent Elongation (%El):

Weldability: Welding is a process by which two materials, usually

metals, are permanently joined ,It is induced by a combination of
temperature, pressure, and metallurgical conditions .It is simply a
measure of how easy it is to make a weld in a particular material without
cracks. Weldability is not a fixed parameter for a given material, but will
depend on joint details, service requirements, and welding processes and
facilities available.
Malleability: Malleability of a material is its ability to be flattened into
thin sheets without cracking by hot or cold working. Aluminium, copper,
tin, lead, steel. are malleable metals. ability to plastically deform and
shape a material by forging, rolling or by any other method of applying
pressure. Being easy to beat into a thin sheet is the literal meaning.

Stress Strain curve of Mild

steel

Stress Strain curve of

Aluminium

CHAPTER 2

PROBLEM DEFINITION
During the 1990s, sport utility vehicles (SUVs) became the fastest growing
segment of the auto industry. In 1999, SUV sales reached almost 19% of the
total light vehicle market and the mix of SUVs on the road was about 8.7%.
demand for new and customised personal vehicles were increasing at an
exponential rate with the increase in buying power of customers. As these SUVs
were being used for different purposes namely in Battle fields, Rallies,
adventure , Off Roading etc. When these trucks/ SUVs were driven on these
purposes they required additional accessories or Upgradation for Better safety
of the truck as well as the passengers in the vehicle, ease of movement, Good
towing capacity and increasing the traction of the vehicle.
So this Project is more narrowed down to design, model and manufacture a cold
rolled steel bumper for off road vehicles which can improve the above
mentioned factors. Finally this is done:

1. Material Selection
2. Modelling of the Bumper
3. Production.
OBJECTIVE OF THE PROJECT
To determine the thickness of the NEW OFF ROAD BUMPER
To design a NEW BUMPER by Modeling in Unigraphics NX 8
To carry out static analysis and impact Analysis on the New Bumper to
and validate the results with the existing bumper in Impact Analysis.
2.2 METHODOLOGY

Conceptual Design of the Bumper

Modelling of the Bumper

Development of Geometry from the
Existing Bumper
Material Selection for the Bumper

Mechanical Properties

Meshing of Geometry

Impact Strength for Energy Absorption

Simulation of the part

Analysis of the Results

Final Material selected from result

comparison
Validation of the Final bumper

Results and Conclusion

CHAPTER 3
REVIEW OF LITERATURE
Carbon composites meets most of the Requirements like high strength to
weight Ratio , Crashworthiness and high stiffness to weight ratio, but
according to Alen John et.al various aerodynamic shapes and structures
couldnt be used due to high cost, More materials, composites and alloys
will used as materials in future. Further analysis on environmental impact
can be done using the Life Cycle Assessment software and carbon
calculator tools.
Design, fabrication and testing of steel and composite bumper (using
glass fibre material) are completed and also composite bumper is
analysed and compared with steel bumper. K.Chinarasu et.al has
discussed that fuel efficiency of the vehicle has increased as the weight
of the composite bumper is less compared to Steel bumper.
Cold-rolled and hot-dip galvanized steel grades with up to 1400 MPa
tensile strength can be cold formed with conventional press forming and
roll forming methods. Jan-Olof Sperle et.al high strength and ultra high
strength sheet steels are today used successfully for weight reduction and
increased safety in applications such as door impact beams, bumper
reinforcements, and seat constructions.
The study of automotive bumper was done on designs namely, basic
bumper design with steel, with the attachment of foam and with the
attachment of honeycomb. Praveen Kumar[4] et.al concluded that
carbon fibre gives high strength to weight ratio in comparison with steel

and dissipates energy. The basic design with front part as a foam absorbs
the energy and ensures the pedestrian safety.
Stacy C. Davis[5] found from Survey that SUVs are safer than cars
because they are generally larger (considered a weight advantage in
crashes with other vehicles), higher (improved visibility), and more
rugged (a vehicle that can climb mountains and cross streams of water
will surely be more than adequate on a city street).According to crash
statistics indicate that large vehicles provide more protection than small
vehicles in crashes, there is no methodology to compare crash test results
across vehicle models in different size categories.
Gh.N. RADU[6] et al performed experiments through computer
simulation and found the behaviour of the Bumper under velocity could
be determined. During the impact, the transferred force reaches the
highest value and shortly after the impact then reduces to its static value.
From the book by the Author Named Mark.A.Smiths guide to safe and
common sense off Road Driving , he talks about Mag Wheels. He says
that a good radial AT (all Terrain) or good MS (Mud & Snow) tires are
sufficient .Radial tires are ideal since they provide a larger footprint than
other tires of the same size. This larger area of contact will provide more
traction on rough terrain.
The front Bumper Beam Designed by Mahesh Kumar [8] et al has
considered two major factors (1) the internal absorbed energy by the
bumper beams should be kept high by using material having high yield
strength and high modulus of elasticity. (2) Plastic deformation of the
bumper beam should be avoided as much as possible in low-speed mode.
CHAPTER 4

4.1 Geometric Model

Geometric Model is divided into
(a).2D projection drawings
(b).Wireframe Modelling
(c).Surface Modelling
(d).Solid Modelling

Flow chart of Geometric

Modelling

 Construction of basic geometric objects: In the very first step the

designer creates simple and basic geometric shapes and elements by
using options like points, lines, and circles.
Translations of the shapes and elements: In the second step the
designer uses options like scaling, rotation and other related
transformations of the geometric shape and elements.
Construction of the geometric model: During the last step the
designer makes use of various commands to that option which causes
integration of the objects or shapes sometimes called elements of the
geometric model to form the desired structure and shape.
The Construction can be saved in a file or location using a standard
(3D) file format.
Geometric modelling plays a major role in cost by cutting down the
capital investment by creating in 3d than physically.
The Models design or created can be directly used in Manufacturing
computer numerical control.
Finite elemental analysis also accept these 3D models to find out the
Stress, Thermal, Deflection etc.
WIREFRAME MODELLING
The word wireframe means a wire that is bent to follow the object
edges to generate a model.
Model consists entirely of points, lines, arcs and circles, conics, and
curves.

The object is not recorded as a solid but the vertices that defines the
boundary of the object, or the intersections of the edges of the object
boundary are recorded as a collection of points and their connectivity.

Figure of wireframe

Characteristics of Wireframe modelling

Simple and straight forward in concept
Displays less information than required
Ambiguous display of real objects will be created.
Requires more user strain or effort to install the required data.
Wireframe is divided into Analytical and Synthetic entities.
This format cannot be used to calculate dynamic properties and
complex shapes curves cannot be modelled.
Virtual edges are not provided.

SURFACE MODELLING
Wireframe

A surface model is a set of faces.

A surface model consists of wireframe entities that form the basis to
create surface.
It contains the definitions of Surface, edges and vertices.
Eliminates ambiguity and non-uniqueness present in wireframe
models.
A wireframe model can be extracted from a surface model surface
model by deleting or blanking all surface entities deleting or blanking
all surface entities.
Gives the Model a touch of better visualization and Presentations were
the object looks very Realistic.

 It creates a surface Geometry for CNC Machining.

Properties related to Surfaces like Reflectivity, colour and roughness
can be demonstrated and assigned.
Shape design and representation of complex objects such as car, ship ,
and airplane bodies as well as castings.
It doesnt provide useful information about the interior property of the
model as it is only Surface construction.
Surface Modelling cannot be used to find out or calculate dynamic
properties.

SOLID MODELING
Its a three dimensional advanced Geometric modelling.
Solid Parts of an object can be represented through solid modelling.
The 3D Object can be viewed in wire frame, in turn wire frame for
better visualisation can be seen in 2D and 3D.
Giving surface Projection to the wire 3D views of geometric models
makes the object appear solid on the screen and this is called as solid
modelling.
Solid Modelling is basically represented by volume.
Most importantly The solid modelling method is based upon the "halfspace" concept.
The boundary of the model differentiates the inside and outside of the
modelled object.
Solid modelled object stores both the geometric and topological data.
Through Solid modelling we can verify whether the 2 objects occupy
the same space or not.

 Solid modelling improves the Design quality and improvises the

visualization and has very good potential for functional automation
and integration.
Using volume information :
weight or volume calculation, centroids,
moments of inertia calculation,
stress analysis (finite elements analysis),
heat conduction calculations,
dynamic analysis, system dynamics analysis.

 Using volume an d boundary in formation:

Generation of CNC codes,
Robotic and assembly simulation.
DIFFERENT SOLID MODELLING TECHNIQUES:
o CONSTRUCTIVE SOLID GEOMETRY (CSG): it defines a
model or a solid object in relative terms of combining a
primitive and generated solid shapes
o Boolean operations are used for construction.
o Solid entities are namely ( cylinder, block , cone and sphere)
o It occupies less storage so display time is little longer and it is
concise.

o BOUNDARY REPRESENTATION: a solid model is formed

by deciding its surfaces that is formed from its spatial
boundaries.
o Euler operation is used in constructing the Models.
o Boundary representation does not guarantee that a group of
boundary surfaces often polygons form a closed solid. The data
are also not in the ideal form for model calculations.
o Representation is used mainly for graphical displays.
o Finite Element Method programs use this method because the
meshing of the interior volume can be easily controlled.

o PARAMETRIC MODELLING: Parametric is a term used to describe

a dimensions ability to change the shape of model geometry if the
dimension value is modified.
o Feature-based is a term used to describe the various components of a
model. For example, a part can consists of various types of features such
as holes, grooves, fillets, and chamfers.
o Feature-based, Parametric Solid Modelling system represents the
progression of Geometric modelling.
o In parametric modeling, dimensions control the model.
o Design intent is how your model will react when dimension values are
changed.
o Feature-based, parametric solid modelling eliminated the direct use of
common geometric primitives such as cone, cylinder, sphere, etc, since
these primitives only represent low-level geometric entities. In designing
and manufacturing mechanical parts, one would always refer to
mechanical features.
o Parametric modeler software also provides tabular views of the
components (parts list, door schedule, window schedule, etc.) and
maintains their association with other views of the model. If a component
is edited graphically, the list is updated; if a component is edited on the
list, the graphic views are updated.

SAMPLE MODEL OF A STEEL BUMPER

ISOMETRIC VIEW OF A
BUMPER

FRONT VIEW OF A BUMPER

MODELLING APPROACHES
There are two Different Approaches in creating a SOLID MODEL
o Top Down Approach
o Bottom Up Approach
TOP DOWN MODELLING:
o Either volume or areas are considered to complete on single
solid part.
o Combination of these Solid parts in a fashion finishes the final
Shape
o The volumes or areas that you initially define are called
primitives.
o Primitives are located and oriented with the help of the working
plane.
o The combinations used to produce the final shape are called
Boolean operations.
o When you create a 2-D primitive, a modeling tool usually
defines an area, along with its underlying lines and key points.
o When you create a 3-D primitive, a modeling tool usually
defines a volume, along with its underlying areas, lines and key
points.

TOP DOWN MODELLING

2-D primitives include rectangles, circles,

triangles, and other polygons

3-D primitives: blocks, cylinders, prisms,

spheres, and cones.

BOTTOM UP MODELLING:
o Either points or lines will be joined to complete the solid part.
o Low level programming systems usually adopts with bottom-up
modeling
o Bottom-up design is the traditional method. You first design and
model parts, then insert them into an assembly and use mates to
position the parts.

BOTTOM UP MODELLING

CHAPTER 5
5.1 MATERIAL SELECTION:
1. Grade of cold rolled steel = CR0CR440.
2. Grade of Aluminium = B 390.
5.2 STEEL VERSUS ALUMINIUM
Steel has higher density than Aluminium.
Steels modulus of elasticity is greater than Aluminium.
Aluminium has to have better thickness than Steel to maintain its
stiffness property.
Steel is twice stronger than Aluminium; this strength role plays a critical
part during a collision or an impact action.
Aluminium is almost three times costlier than Steel in India.
Material Production of Steel and Aluminium , Steel has an advantage
because Aluminium sheet Production is less
Aluminium is complex to weld when its weldability is compared to Steel
Aluminium doesnt have good Stretch Capability compared to Steel this
property can be inferred from the Stress-Strain curve Graph.
Steel does have a very good preserving quality, even after number of
load cycles, whereas Aluminium will be affected with Fatigue and
eventually be destroyed.
Drilling holes of Aluminium is very intricate as compared to Steel.
Finally Steel is easier to work under die/press and tooling. Security with
Aluminium needs much more engineering because it's more prone the
shear, less tolerance to temperature change.
So Steel is a Better Material than Aluminium to Design, model and
Manufacture Bumpers for Off Road Driving.