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SAE TECHNICAL
PAPER SERIES 2003-01-0871

Optimization of the Side Swing Door

Closing Effort
Raviraj Nayak and Kee Im
General Motors Corporation

Reprinted From: Reliability & Robust Design inAutomotive Engineering

(SP-1736 / SP-1736CD)

2003 SAE World Congress

Detroit, Michigan
March 3-6, 2003

400 Commonwealth Drive, Warrendale, PA 15096-0001 U.S.A. Tel: (724) 776-4841 Fax: (724) 776-5760 Web: www.sae.org
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Optimization of the Side Swing Door
Closing Effort
Copyright © 2003 SAE International
ABSTRACT
In the automotive industry, a lot of attention
has been paid to the effort required for
opening/closing the doors, and for a good
reason. The door closing and opening effort
creates an impression in the customer’s
mind about the engineering and quality of
the vehicle even before he or she steps into
it. Although this is such an important issue,
the precise quantification of what constitutes
a good performance target for the door
opening/closing effort, has remained
somewhat elusive. Thumb rules and best
practices abound in the automotive industry.
Some of the rules and best practices have
focused on setting certain targets for the
energy required to shut the door from a
small open position (around 10-15 degrees).
This target can be misleading. The purpose
of this paper is to present an ADAMS®
simulation model that includes all the
different components of the door design.
The complete opening/closing motion is a
result of the interaction of the different
components of the door closing system,
such as the latch, weather seal, energy loss
due to air-binding effect, the inclination of
the hinge axes, check-link etc. The analysis
simulates the entire opening/closing motion
and the energy/force required during this
motion. Analyzing the details of the door
opening/closing motion of different vehicles,
and associating this information to the
customer dissatisfaction figures from
sources like JD Power quality survey,
2003-01-0871
Raviraj Nayak and Kee Im
General Motors Corporation
enables us to more precisely quantify the
target performance that will result in greater
customer satisfaction.
INTRODUCTION
Engineers often focus on determining the
total energy required for closing the door by
summing up the energy lost in the weather
seal and latch. Often the energy required to
overcome the air-bind effect is assumed to
be a certain percentage of the above energy
requirement. There is a certain justification
in doing this because the air-bind effect
depends on the velocity of the door. The air-
bind effect is the increase in vehicle internal
air-pressure because of the additional air
being pushed inside the vehicle, when the
rate of incoming air is higher than the rate of
air leakage. Therefore, the larger the energy
required for compressing the seal and
engaging the latch, the higher is the initial
velocity imparted to the door resulting in a
higher loss due to air-bind. However, the
total energy required is just a part of the
whole picture. We need to analyze the
complete motion of the door from the fully
open position because that is what the
customer experiences. When we look at the
total motion then we see more clearly the
effect of the check-link, the tilt of the hinge
axis, and the gradual increase in air
pressure inside the vehicle due to air-bind.
ADAMS®, a multi-body dynamics software,
was selected to simulate the door
closing/opening efforts. ADAMS allows the
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user to create user-defined subroutines for
calculating applied forces to a multi-body
system. This capability proves very useful
when calculating the resistance due to air-
bind effect. The issues that need to be
considered along with the door
opening/closing efforts are the door sealing,
and door structural performance. Our aim is
to build a door opening/closing effort model
that includes all the components that affect
it. We can use the model to analyze the
effect of the design parameters, which can
be modified, in order to reduce the
opening/closing system. Figure 1 shows the
components of the door that are included in
the ADAMS® model of the door
opening/closing system. For analyzing this
system, we can provide a certain initial
angular velocity to the door at the fully open
position and plot the decrease of the kinetic
energy of the door during the closing motion,
as it overcomes the resistance of the check-
link, air-bind, seal, and latch. The other
study is to perform a quasi-static analysis,
wherein we close or open the door at a
constant angular velocity and track the force
required at the door handle. Both these
analyses provide valuable information about
how difficult or easy it is to open/close a
door.
Check-link Door
Properties
Seal
ADAMS® binding
Hinge
Model
Run ADAMS Run ADAMS
with Initial with Constant
Speed Speed
Door Kinetic Energy Door Handle
Plot Force Plot
Figure 1 Door closing/opening effort
simulation model
ADAMS MODEL
We now take a look at how each component
is modeled in ADAMS, and its role in the
door opening/closing efforts. We will also
discuss how it affects the structural, and
sealing performance requirements.
DOOR PROPERTIES
We need to input the details of the door,
such as its center of gravity, the mass
moment of inertia, and the door mass, in the
ADAMS® model.
SEAL
To simulate the seal in the ADAMS model,
information is required on the compression-
load diagram (CLD), and the location of the
seal surface around the door ring. The CLD
input can be generated either from the test
data for a six inch section of seal, or from
the plane strain simulation using some finite
element software. The plane strain
simulation is proven for its accuracy.
Depending on the angle of attack of the
door, the CLD sometimes varies from
location to location. If there are multiple
Latch seals, the CLD for each seal has to be input
accordingly.
The seal surface around the door ring is
represented in the ADAMS model using a
Air- series of markers, placed at a distance of
four to six inches apart. Each marker
represents a certain length of seal. For
better accuracy, the markers could be
placed closer. For each marker on the door
we place a corresponding marker on the
ground part, which represents the vehicle
body. The distance between the two
markers represents the compression of the
seal. ADAMS uses the seal CLD to calculate
the force generated between the two
markers. The seal stiffness, and the seal
margin affect both the sealing and door
closing effort/energy. Improving the
performance for sealing can deteriorate the
performance in door closing efforts and vice-
versa.
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LATCH
Similar to the seal the latch can also be
modeled in ADAMS using two markers one Opening Closing
on the body and one on the door part. The 50

force v/s. striker travel, diagram can be input 40

for the latch. This information is used to 30

Operation Torque (Nm)

calculate the latching energy and quasi- 20

static latch force. 10

HINGE 0
-10
10 20 30 40 50 60 70
-20

The hinge location and hinge axis -30

orientation is modeled as a pin joint linking -40

the door and the body. The hinge friction -50

Door Opening Angle (deg)

can be input in the model in terms of a
torque. In order to reduce the door closing
effort the door hinge axis is tilted towards
the inside of the vehicle to take advantage of
Figure 2 Typical check-link torque curve
the gravity effect. The tilting is typically done
towards the inside of the vehicle because
there is a lot of resistance from the seal, The check-link performance is dependent on
latch, and air-bind, to fully shut the door. The the shape of the detent grove and the
tilting of the hinge axes results in a slightly retention spring stiffness. A typical check-
increased torque requirement for opening link torque curve is shown in Figure 2. The
the door. check link is modeled as a torque at the
hinge. The designer needs to achieve a
balance, between providing enough
CHECK-LINK
resistance for keeping the door open, at the
same time not making the resistance so high
Check-link is a key hardware that controls that the customer finds it difficult to close or
the door closing and opening motions and open the door.
greatly affects the closing energy and effort.
There are several types of check-links.
AIR-BINDING
Some of them are integrated with hinge
while some are separately attached to the
The energy lost due to air-binding effect is
hinge pillar and the door.
the hardest to predict. During the closing
motion air is being pushed inside the
The check-link offers a resisting torque to
vehicle, by the door. If the major exit areas
the direction of the motion of the door.
such as the remaining doors or windows are
Controlling this resisting torque controls the
shut, then the pressure inside the vehicle
opening and closing characteristics. A
rises. The increased air pressure offers
check-link typically has two or three grooves
resistance to the closing motion of the door.
called detent that serves the purpose of
This effect is called the air-bind effect. In
holding the door open at certain positions.
ADAMS® we use the VTOSUB to apply a
When the door gets into a detent the
resisting torque at the hinge axis at each
customer needs to put in some amount of
time step.
energy into the door to get it out of the
detent. Once out of the detent the door can
In the air-bind effect the pressure rise at the
close or open on its own until it gets in to the
end of the time step (Pn) and angular
next detent. These detents prevent the door
velocity (ωn) of the door are coupled as
from slamming into the occupant, if left open
shown in Equation 1. In Equation 1 Ihinge is
when the vehicle is on gradient.
the mass moment of inertia about the hinge
axis, V is the additional air pushed inside the
vehicle, the pressure inside the vehicle at
the beginning of the time step is (Pn-1), and
Ve is the air leakage from the vehicle. For
each time increment in the VTOSUB we
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need to obtain the converged value of the the closing effort as sensed by the
angular velocity of the door at the beginning customer. Inside-handle force can be
of the time step (ωn-1), and the guess value determined by doing the simulation, wherein
of the angular velocity (ωn) at the end of the the door closes or opens at constant velocity
time step from ADAMS®. Using an angular in a certain amount of time, and by tracking
velocity, which is the average of the two, we the force required to maintain the motion.
estimate the amount of air being pushed
inside the vehicle during the time step. The two types of output plots, namely the
Knowing the air pressure inside the vehicle door kinetic energy plot and the door inside-
at the end of the previous time step, the handle force plot, provide information
additional air being pushed inside the regarding the overall door opening and
vehicle during the time step minus the closing motion and required effort.
leakages from the vehicle, we can calculate
the pressure rise, using the ideal gas DOOR KINETIC ENERGY PLOT
equations. In this manner the pressure rise
inside the vehicle is calculated for each Typical door kinetic energy plot is shown in
small increment in time. It must be noted Figure 3. Point “A” represents the initial
that the angular velocity at the end of the kinetic energy imparted to the door in the
current time step returned by ADAMS® is fully open position. The plot shows the two
not a converged value. The converged value big drops and gains of the kinetic energy of
will depend on the resisting torque (T) due to the door as it goes in, and gets out of the
air-bind effect as shown in Equation1. detent of the check-link. This plot can be
Therefore we have a number of iterations at converted to trace the closing speed of the
each time step before a converged velocity door. At the end of the motion (point “C”),
is obtained. the plot shows a big drop in energy due to
. the increase in torque due to the air-binding
Ihingeωn =T(ωn-1, V,Pn-1, Pn, ωn, Ve) effect, the contact between the door and a
large portion of the seal, and the latch. If the
Equation1 kinetic energy is still positive at the latched
position (point “D”), the door still has some
The pressure rise inside the vehicle, and residual energy, which is transferred to the
toque due to air-binding effect can be plotted body and the door as slam energy. If the
in ADAMS using a user sub-routine energy at the latched position is negative, it
REQSUB. is required to rerun the analysis with a
higher initial speed until the energy is close
ANALYSIS to zero. The initial energy will be the
minimum closing energy required to just
Once all the above information is modeled in latch the door.
the ADAMS input deck we can simulate the
Kinetic energy v/s Door angle
opening or closing motions and obtain the
energy or handle-force plots. Using a certain 14

initial angular velocity, which represents the

energy imparted to the door at the fully open
12

A
position, the ADAMS simulation is carried 10
Kinetic enrgy (J)

out to calculate the kinetic energy B C

throughout the closing motion. If during the
8

motion the kinetic energy drops to zero, the 6

door does not close to the fully latched

position. In which case the ADAMS
4

D
simulation is rerun using higher starting 2

speed until the kinetic energy becomes zero

or very close to it at the fully latched
0

-64 -57 -52 -47 -42 -38 -34 -29 -24 -21 -18 -14 -11 -6 -2
position. The starting velocity in this case
Angle (deg.)
represents the minimum velocity required for
the door to close. This is a better indicator of
Figure 3 Door Kinetic Energy Plot
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The Figure 4 shows a typical plot of the Handle force v/s angle
torque and resulting loss of energy due to 500

the air-binding effect starting from the fully

open position to the fully closed position. B
The figure clearly shows how the torque due
400

air-binding effect, sharply increases at the

Handle force (N)

very end of the door closing motion. It
300

should be noted that the air-bind energy is

dependent on the velocity of closing of the 200

door, higher the velocity more is the air-bind

energy loss. 100

600000
0

A
-64 -58 -51 -45 -38 -32 -26 -19 -13 -6 0
-100

Door angle (deg.)

500000

400000

Figure 5 Door Inside-Handle Force Plot

Torque (N-mm)

300000

CONCLUSION
200000

Once we have the simulation model which

100000
predicts the opening/closing efforts of the
door accurately, we can change the hinge tilt
axes or optimize the check-link
characteristics to obtain the right
0

-59 -53 -48 -43 -38 -32 -27 -22 -17 -12 -7 -2

performance in terms of energy and the

Closing angle (deg.)
maximum force required of the customer to
open or close the door.
Figure 4 Torque due to air-binding effect
We can easily simulate the energy/force
requirements for a number of vehicles
INSIDE-HANDLE FORCE PLOT without elaborate test setups. The
performance information for different
Figure 5 plot represents the simulation of the vehicles can be compared against its JD
handle effort when one tries to close the Power scores on the quality surveys on the
door from inside the vehicle. Unlike kinetic opening/closing efforts. This helps us
energy plot, this chart is based on a quasi- establish the right performance targets for
static analysis. This plot gives the opening/closing efforts and develop best
information on the force required throughout practices.
the motion. It provides a reasonably good
idea about the closing force required at the
This model also includes air-binding
door handle. At the end of the motion (point
phenomena, which is very elusive because it
“A”), the force required to maintain motion at
is not always possible to measure energy
constant velocity sharply increases due to
lost due to air-bind accurately in the test.
the air-binding effect and the contact with
There are no direct measures, which can be
the seal, latch, and over-slam bumper.
used to establish air-bind. To compound the
problem the air-bind increases as we slam
the door at higher and higher speeds.
Optimizing the door closing efforts by just
focusing on the seal or latch independently
without taking a systemic approach as
shown in this paper can result in
unsatisfactory results.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The authors wish to thank Paul Meernik of

GM R&D for use of his air-bind energy
formulation in our ADAMS model.

REFERENCES

1. ADAMS® User Guide, 2000, Mechanical

Dynamics Incorporated, USA

CONTACT

Raviraj Nayak, General Motors Corporation,

M/C 480-400-111, 6600 East 12 Mile Road,
warren, Michigan, 48092, email
raviraj.nayak@gm.com