Optimization of Passenger Car Door Impact Beam using Quasi Static CAE Analysis

Automotive side impacts are particularly dangerous as location of impact is very close to the passenger, who can be immediately reached by the impacting vehicle. FMVSS 214 static is a US safety regulation for occupant safety during side impacts, in which the vehicle is tested at static loading conditions to measure its load baring capacity and integrity of side closures. The CAE load case, virtually simulating the test, was handled as a quasi-static problem in this study. Impact beam is a component that helps in improving vehicle passive safety performance during side impacts by minimizing door intrusion to the occupant cabin. It plays an important role in achieving side impact regulatory norms. Through this study, a mass optimized front door impact beam design was developed for a passenger car with the help of CAE simulations; FMVSS 214S regulation norms are met. Component thickness, material and cross section shape were the design variables considered for the study. A methodology to perform the component level simulation of the impact beam loading such that it replicates component behaviour during full vehicle simulation was developed. This has helped in reducing the total problem calculation time in solver. This also has minimized the computational cost for the project. CAE simulations required for the study were done using LS-DYNA. ANSA and PRIMER were used as pre-processors and hyper-graph and meta-post were used for post processing.