Highly efficient and reliable numerical approach for predicting automotive hood displacement considering composite materials and structures of weatherstrip

Abstract Automotive hood, a closure system of the engine compartment, needs to be mounted in a suitable position to avoid irregular gaps and flush when it is initially assembled. Hood panel is mounted with an elastomer part called weatherstrip that is generally made of EPDM foam material for sealing and reducing vehicle vibration and whistling noise. Since the elastomer material exhibits non-linear mechanical properties and viscoelasticity, which result in unpredictable reaction force and compression set, finite element analysis (FEA) of the automotive hood panel displacement with weatherstrip model shows low precision and long computing time. To resolve this issue, in this study, a cost-effective methodology for FEA is introduced by applying compressive stress of weatherstrip into distributed surface load in the finite element model without weatherstrip modeling. In addition, 2D FEA of the weatherstrip was performed to investigate the effect of structural parameters on the reaction force. This work demonstrates a numerical approach for predicting automotive hood displacement, considering not only the material properties but also the structural design variables of the weatherstrip. Therefore, this approach can be applied to other closer parts where it requires highly efficient yet reliable predictive results for mounting position.