Fiber reinforced plastics (FRPs) offer great potential for weight critical applications. Their specific properties make them attractive substitutes for metals which are currently the most commonly used material in the automotive industry. Despite their advantages, their use in p
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Fiber reinforced plastics (FRPs) offer great potential for weight critical applications. Their specific properties make them attractive substitutes for metals which are currently the most commonly used material in the automotive industry. Despite their advantages, their use in primary structures inside a car is still limited due to a number of factors, of which cost is the most important one. For this project, the use of FRPs as local reinforcements in semi-structural applications is investigated. The main content of the project will consist in analysing 3 different FRP design concepts with the use of Finite Element Modelling (FEM). The main objective is then to determine which design concept is best suited for the reinforcement based on a number of criteria which are defined inside the project. The main findings will consist on having one of the design concepts meeting the requirements for the reinforcement application or to prove that no design concept can be used. The integration of FRPs inside a car offer great benefits in terms of being environmentally friendly in a world where car pollution is a major problem in some countries. At the moment, the application of FRPs is only limited to small non-critical areas but once that barrier is crossed, a more extensive use in cars can be investigated.