Development of Virtual Hood Slam Test

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. In the physical test, strain gauge measurements were carried out at high-stress locations determined through virtual simulation mentioned earlier. Simulation and test results were compared and good correlation of 80% was achieved. This load case is now added to master DVP for deployment to all future projects.