Bending Performance and Reinforcement of Rocker Panel Components with Unidirectional Carbon Fiber Composite

Unidirectional carbon fiber composite material is one of the most common types of composites employed in vehicles, and its bending performance plays an important role in crash safety, especially in side pole impact. This study aimed to redesign one of the most important components of the side structure of a vehicle, the rocker panel, with unidirectional carbon fiber composite material. Our results show that it is not easy to acquire the same bending performance as that of a steel rocker panel by merely replacing it with carbon fiber material and increasing the wall thickness. Therefore, reinforcements were employed to improve the bending performance of the carbon fiber rocker panel, and a polypropylene reinforcement method achieved a weight reduction of 40.7% compared with high-strength steel.