Increasingly stringent demands worldwide to improve fuel economy and reduce tailpipe emissions are leading to the clear need to reduce vehicle weight,with the automotive industry considering newer material technologies to achieve aggressive weight targets.Carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) materials are widely recognized for providing high stiffness-to-weight and strength-to-weight ratios,and they can also offer very attractive energy dissipation characteristics when undergoing crushing deformations.But to really consider CFRP materials for primary automotive structures,it must be possible to simulate,in a predictive manner,their response in crash events within the context of large system or full vehicle models.