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With an increasing demand to reduce the product development time cycle from concept-to-vehicle, weight saving effort and less prototype initiative, CAE evaluation technique in the vehicle durability development must allow the computer simulation to reproduce the actual driving condition over a proving ground. This paper describes the case study to predict the durability performance of full vehicle using vehicle FE parts in ADAMS model. The objective is to carry out full vehicle simulation in actual road load condition using reduced full vehicle FE model, condensed with the ADAMS model. The measured acceleration is applied to the vehicle FE model and dynamic loads converted to equivalent static loads. The FE model solved in MSC.Nastran® with number of static load subcases converted from the measured proving ground road data. It also verifies the validity of the evaluation methodologies by simulation-to-experiment comparisons.

The overall automotive industry is moving toward first time right test which in turn needs first time right analysis. This is due to the enormous pressure of cost, mass, time to market and availability of prototype vehicles for testing. Use of finite element methods enables to upfront predict the system behavior in operating conditions and evaluation of structural strength. In vehicle product development process, hood slam durability evaluation is one of the important tests for body closure structure. Current work showcases an effort made for developing virtual hood slam test. The virtual model consists of BIW, hood, hinge joint, interface like CRFM (cooling-radiator-fan module) and latch mechanism with spring preload. Analysis performed with LSDyna solver. An impact loading is applied by converting potential energy to kinetic energy, mimicking the hood dropping from a specified height on the hood latch.

Side Door closing velocity is one of the key customer touch points which depicts the build quality of the vehicle. Side door closing velocity results from the interaction of different parts like door and body seals, door check arm, door hinge, latch, and alignment of door hinge axis. In this paper, a high door closing velocity issue in a sports utility vehicle is discussed. Physical studies are carried out to understand each parameter in door closing velocity and its contribution is defined in terms of velocity. Many physical trials are conducted to conclude the contribution of each parameter. Studies revealed that the body and door seal are contributing around 70% of door closing velocity. Check arm and hinge axis deviation are contributing around 10% of the door closing velocity. Physical trials are conducted by reducing the compression distance of the body seal.