Paper Title
Finite Element Modeling of The Sandwich Composites For Pedestrian Protection

Abstract
Selecting materials for the vehicle hood play an important role in the pedestrian safety, which could be the main thing to reduce the risk level of the head impact during a collision. The composite material vehicle hood can be used instead of steel and aluminum that due to higher stiffness, lower weight and absorb impact energy. In this study, the finite element models of the pedestrian adult headform and a composite sandwich panel of the vehicle hood were created by ABAQUS/Explicit to predict the level safety of structures for pedestrian during a collision. The effects of different stacking sequences, inclination angle and foam core thickness of the hood sandwich panel to HIC value, deformation and absorbed energy were investigated and discussed. Simulation results are validated by Euro-NCAP pedestrian headform impact to composite sandwich panel. The results show that the FEM modeling of the composite sandwich panel can effectively predict the pedestrian head injury. This method can be an appropriate tool for the pedestrian safety evaluation and related development. Keywords: Pedestrian head impact; HIC; composite sandwich panel; adult headform; FEM.