Study of structures made of composite materials used in automotive industry

Composite materials are becoming more and more popular in automotive industry since classical materials are, in general, expensive and deficient. This paper presents a study on how metals, used in the construction of car doors, can be successfully replaced by composite materials. The vibration behavior of a car door, made of composite materials, is studied and, since the rigidity of this component is low, a solution is proposed in which the structure is stiffened. The modal analysis and finite element method are used to identify the eigenfrequencies and eigenmodes for this structure.