Simulation of a Frontal Impact on a Coach Door Sub-System Using a Pseudo-Dynamic (PSD) Test

Testing automotive structures represents a very important procedure for its safety evaluation aiming the certification. In this work, a pseudo-dynamic procedure was used to assess the deformation energy stored in a coach door structure when subjected to a virtual impact of a swinging striker. Currently, passenger vehicles are tested for its resilience when subjected to an impact of a swinging striker hitting the vehicle frontal surface at a prescribed velocity. This procedure represents some investment, mainly in instrumentation and the complexity of the test rig kinematics. In this work, as a first step for the complete structure validation, the structural behaviour of the vehicle door, normally subjected to an in-plane impact load, was analysed using a pseudo-dynamic method. In this test, only a fraction of the striker mass is considered to deform the door structure, given that the front pillar of the vehicle body is supposed to receive the majority of the striker kinetic energy and it is an absent entity in this alternative experimental procedure. The door is instrumented using 6 uniaxial strain gauges strategically placed. In addition, the continuous deformation and strain fields of the main front panel were measured using contactless 3D digital image correlation.