Composite materials are very often used in the manufacture of lightweight parts in the automotive industry, manufacturing of cost-efficient elements implies proper technology combined with a structural optimization of the material structure. The paper presents the manufacturing process, experimental and numerical analyses of the mechanical behavior for two composite hoods with different design concepts and material layouts as body components of a small electric vehicle. The first model follows the black metal design and the second one is based on the composite design concept. Manufacturing steps and full details regarding the fabrication process are delivered in the paper. Static stiffness and strain values for lateral, longitudinal and torsional loading cases were investigated. The first composite hood is 254 times lighter than a similar steel hood and the second hood concept is 22% lighter than the first one. The improvement in terms of lateral stiffness for composite hoods about a similar steel hood is for the black metal design concept about 80% and 157% for the hood with a sandwich structure and modified backside frame. Transversal stiffness is few times higher for both composite hoods while the torsional stiffness has an increase of 62% compared to a similar steel hood.
Keywords: carbon fiber reinforced polymers; front hood; manufacturing technology; numerical and experimental analysis.