A review of design, materials, and manufacturing techniques in bumper beam system

The bumper beam assembly absorbs the kinetic energy and encounters deformation during low and high-velocity impact crash collisions and accidents. An optimal bumper energy-absorbing system should fulfill pedestrian safety requirements and be crashworthy in both high- and low-speed collisions. Bumper beams made of traditional metallic materials, especially from high-strength steel, are heavyweight under low production capacity. The lightweight structure of the assembly can be achieved by using composite materials to replace the metals addressing the weight issues. In this review article, literature related to bumper beam materials is studied along with applications and the best possible and optimum option to be considered as a replacement for metals. Different parameters which affect the design of the bumper beam assembly are also reviewed. The design of bumper beams has been studied based on the conceptual design and their importance in the early stage of manufacturing. The paper also discussed the comparison of different manufacturing processes used to fabricate bumper beam assembly. Moreover, literature related to experimental investigations is also studied and reviewed with respect to the numerical models of bumper beams based on different parameters. Based on the comparison, it is concluded that numerical models can be effectively used in the design of a high-performance bumper beam system.