## 1 Introduction  
Throughout history, from the first successful vehicle designs to the present day, various construction materials such as steel, aluminium, and other metals and their alloys have been used in the construction of means of transport. For several years now, there has been a noticeable increase in the use of composite materials in the automotive industry. The reason for this is the properties of composites. They are distinguished by their relatively low weight and high mechanical strength. Composite materials can be easily shaped and, after production, usually have high stiffness. The development of composites has enriched the design possibilities of modern constructions and enabled virtually unlimited possibilities for shaping their functional properties [1]. The first body made of composites (glass-fibre-reinforced polymer) was for the Chevrolet Corvette, presented at the Motorama show in New York in 1953. In motorsports, the use of carbon-fibre-reinforced polymers was introduced in Formula 1, in the McLaren MP4 car [2]. Current materials engineering in the automotive industry is increasingly replacing metal (solid) parts with polymer matrix composites in order to reduce vehicle weight and increase fuel economy. The response of composite materials to compressive forces is opposite to that of traditionally used metallic materials. Most composites have a brittle rather than ductile response to the indicated loads. Metallic structures collapse under crushing, impact by buckling, and/or fold in an accordion fashion with extensive plastic deformation. In composite materials, on the other hand, mechanisms occur, such as fibre fracture, matrix fracture, and delamination of fibres with the matrix. The actual damage mechanisms and sequence are highly dependent on the geometry of the structure and the orientation and alignment of the fibres. Therefore, it is important to properly design the composite material structure in order to obtain a system with the highest possible energy absorption [3; 4]. [PERSON] et al. introduced an innovative approach for designing carbon-fibre-reinforced plastic (CFRP) laminated structures, combining the asymptotic homogenisation method with py optimisation. The method involved calculating the equivalent mechanical properties of a single-layer CFRP using asymptotic homogenisation. Ply optimisation was carried out in three stages: initial free-size optimisation for ply shapes and patch locations per ply orientation, final size optimisation for ply thicknesses, and final ply stacking sequence optimisation. Applying this method to a body-in-white model floor reduced its mass by 60%, demonstrating its efficiency in investigating laminated structures and its potential for lightweight automobile component design and analysis [5]. Vehicle safety in frontal collisions often relies on energy-absorbing crash boxes attached to the front side member (FSM). Recent attention has turned to advanced polymer composites in these crash boxes. [PERSON]'s study assessed conventional metallic crash boxes through tests and simulations, comparing them to CFRP composite materials. The results show that CFRP composite crash boxes outperform aluminium ones by 1.5 times, especially when considering lamination for compression failure. Moreover, larger inner diameters with the same shell thickness reduce energy absorption, and inadequate 0\({}^{\circ}\)-oriented layer content degrades performance as inner diameters increase [6]. Correlations between impact energy and damage, specifically delamination area and matrix effects, in CFRP laminates under foreign object damage conditions at extreme temperatures were shown in [PERSON]'s article. The research highlighted the britteness of CFRP laminates under dynamic loading, emphasising the importance of studying their impact behaviour. Impact-induced damage, especially delamination and matrix cracking, was scrutinised with consideration of different stacking sequences and matrices.