Application of Innovative Numerical Modeling Techniques to Accelerate CAE Based Development Process for Side Pole Impact Test Rig 2011-26-0011

In today's competitive environment, Automotive OEM's are looking for optimizing product development cycle times and costs. CAE based digital component development plays key role in achieving above product development objectives.

This paper presents quick iterative numerical simulation methodologies developed for design validation/development of components for side pole test rig for conducting full vehicle side pole impact test as per EuroNCAP testing protocol. As a part of this side pole test rig development study, side pole support structure, vehicle carrier and carrier stopping mechanism were analyzed for strength and energy absorption requirement (Refer Fig. 1). The complete scope of work for component development/design validation of side pole test rig was simplified by using reduced CAE models. This approach was a substitute to the classical approach of studying together, the complex vehicle to barrier interaction and vehicle-carrier interaction with stopping mechanism. The paper presents following innovative CAE methodologies developed with the reduced CAE models-

• Force - momentum change analogy to study vehicle to barrier interaction during pole structure strength assessment.
• Plastic spring stiffness analogy to study vehicle carrier and stopping mechanism interaction for pole test rig.
• Formation of Templex program to vary the system design variables input in DOE study and optimization method for development of carrier stopping mechanism.

The use of sub-model technique to reduce man-hour efforts and computational time resulted in significant reduction in test rig component development time. In addition, there was cost saving in terms of eliminating the need of CAE preprocessor license by using the Templex program for DOE and optimization study of the test rig component design through “Hyper opt response surface optimization algorithm” available with DFSS tool Hyper study.