Honeycomb Modeling for Side Impact Moving Deformable Barrier (MDB)

Usually honeycomb is used as an energy absorber under impact loads. LS-DYNA constitutive model MAT-26 (*MAT_HONEYCOMB) is to mathematically model honeycomb as an energy absorber. The NHTSA MDB is a physical model of a typical impacting vehicle in side impact tests. The frontal part of MDB is made of honeycomb not just as an energy absorber but as a physical model of a typical car front end. Therefore, here the use of MAT-26 has some particularities, which are described in the paper. The MBD LS-DYNA model has been successfully used at GM for the last ten years.