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Government’s focus on road safety requirements is resulting in faster adoption of stringent automobile safety regulations in India. In addition, due to changing customer preference, automobile companies are also working to provide safer vehicles in the market. Due to the complexity and high cost of the vehicle safety testing, more focus is given to development of CAE simulation technologies to validate the design for meeting regulatory norms, reducing design cycle time and number of physical tests. Safety requirement in vehicle safety regulations is to minimize the impact transfer to the occupants in case of vehicle crash. During vehicle crash condition, there is possibility that driver head may hit the gear shift lever assembly (GSLA) knob as it falls in the hitting area with respect to driver seat reference point (SRP). There is a regulatory requirement for the maximum acceleration level that is to be experienced by the driver during impact to prevent serious head injury.

Risk of injury to occupant in the event of side impact is considerably higher compared to frontal or rear impact as the energy absorbing zones at the front and rear of vehicle is high whereas limited space is available to dissipate the impact energy in the event of side impact. In such scenario strength of side door plays an important role in protecting the occupant. Side door beam in door structure contributes significantly towards the lateral stiffness and plays dominant role in limiting the structural intrusion into passenger compartment. Hence it is interesting to understand the effect of beam specification and orientation on side door strength. Since these factors not only affect the strength but also the cost and weight targets, their study and analysis is important with respect to door design This paper showcases the effect of beam layout and its specifications on the overall strength of the door with an experimental approach using physical test.