TECHNIQUES

TECHNIQUES by J.-C. Zhao, X.-S. Zhu, S.-J. Huang and D. Wan

THE EXPERIMENTAL ANALYSIS FOR COMPRESSION

DEFORMATION OF AUTOMOTIVE DOOR SEALS
.
utomotive weather-stripping seals play an impor- sure head to measure the force generated by the weather-

A tant role as a sealing medium, by both isolating

the environment, and decorating the inside and
the outside of the car. They also influence door clos-
ing force and the ‘coziness’ of operation of the door, etc. Ac-
cording to a testing report from Ford Motor Company, seal
.
.
.
.
.
.
stripping when compressed. The resistance force of the
weather-stripping, when loaded, leads to the deformation
of the elastic element of the sensor and makes the voltage
of the strain-measuring bridge change. After A / D conver-
sion, the output voltage is input into the computer. The
resistance comprises approximately 35–50% of the force to . force of weather-stripping can be obtained from the volt-
close the front door1. . age according to the force-voltage calibration curve of the
. sensor.
.
Weather-stripping material is non-linear with complex char- . 4. Stereovision theory for deformation measurement
acteristics including compression deformation, and high ex- . Because of the complex deformation under the load, the
tensibility and compressibility. In addition, the structure of . deformed displacements of the points are different on the
weather-stripping is of great complexity. For all these rea- . section (shown on Figure 1). Therefore, the traditional
sons listed, its compression deformation characteristics have . methods can’t measure these displacements completely
not been completely known until now. . and quantitatively. In this paper, stereovision theory is
. originally used to obtain the geometric locus of the spatial
This paper studies weather-stripping deformation character- . locations of the different points on the section.
.
istics with experimental methods and provides an effective . The system block diagram is shown in Figure 2. The
certification tool for MARC finite element analysis. . abridged general view of the measurement system is shown
in Figure 3.
DEVELOPMENT OF
Design of System
EXPERIMENTAL
Software
DEVICE 1. The control procedure of
the measurement of force
Design of Testing Device and displacement
Structure Figure 4 shows the flow
1. Stepper motor chart of the control pro-
The testing device re- cedure, which is pro-
quires a driver to gener- grammed with TURBO
ate compression dis- C⫹⫹3. In the procedure,
placement within the Fig. 1: Deformation pattern of seal section when vertical a computer timer gener-
weather-stripping. The compression is 8 mm ates the impulsion signal.
stepper motor is easily The control signal of the
controlled with an impulsive digital signal and is able to . stepper motor is transmitted to its control unit to deter-
start, stop and reverse frequently. It features advantages . mine clockwise or anticlockwise rotation, the frequency,
of rapid response speed and high accuracy, and is used as . and the amount of impulsion. The amount of impulsion
the driver element in the testing device. With pairs of .
.
gears and feed screw nut, the stepper motor movement, .
controlled by the computer, is transformed into rectilinear . Stepper motor

movement which is applied to the weather-stripping di- .

rectly in order to compress it. . Drive gear
2. Optical grating for displacement measurement .
The grating is installed on the pressure head for the com- .
pression of the weather-stripping. Using the grating, pre- .
Pressure head

cise displacement of the pressure head is created to offset . Force sensor

movement errors resulting from the dropout impulsion of ..
Computer

Weather-strip and holder

the stepper motor or pair of gears and feed screw nut . Voltage signal
themselves. The data from the grating are picked up . Strain indicator
through the serial port of the computer2. . Binocular vision measurement system
3. Strain gauge dynamometer for force measurement . Seal shape change
The strain gauge dynamometer is installed on the pres- .
. Optical grating
.
J.-C. Zhao and X.-S. Zhu are affiliated with the School of Mechanical Engineering,
Shanghai Jiaotong University, Shanghai, P.R. China. S.-J. Huang and D. Wan
.
are affiliated with the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Tongji University, . Fig. 2: Block diagram of control system of measurement
Shanghai, P.R. China. . mechanism

January/February 2003 EXPERIMENTAL TECHNIQUES 27

 TECHNIQUES

EXPERIMENTAL ANALYSIS FOR

COMPRESSION DEFORMATION

.
. fast and conveniently. In recent years, it is widely used
. in the on-line and real-time 3D testing of automotive and
Optical grating
. aviation industries.
Force sensor .
Cantilever . The basic principle works when 2D coordinates of a point
. are obtained from two or more groups of the cameras. The
Nut
Seal Section View . spatial coordinates of the point can then be calculated. In
. the actual device, two cameras are used. Figure 5 shows an
Lead
CCD .
screw
. image of the compression deformation of the weather-
Stepper . stripping seal at a moment in time. After filtration, gray con-
motor
. version and histogram correction, the image is shown in Fig-
. ure 6, in which, except at the 4 measured points, there is an
. interference point that cannot be effectively removed with
. the filtration program. Most measured points are circular or
. elliptical, so the center of the points can be obtained by using
Fig. 3: Abridged general view of measurement system . the energy method4. The X, Y coordinates of the center are
. as follows:
.

冘 冘 x f(i, j)冒冘 冘 f(i, j)

Initialization
. nk mk nk mk
. Xk ⫽ ij
. i⫽1 j⫽1 i⫽1 j⫽1

Y ⫽ 冘 冘 y f(i, j)冒冘 冘 f (i, j)

Set controlling parameter of stepper motor .
nk mk nk mk
.
. k ij
Executive interrupt service routine i⫽1 j⫽1 i⫽1 j⫽1
.
.
Data acquisition and processing . where Xk, Yk are the coordinates of the center the kth point,
. nk, mk are the size of external envelop rectangle of the kth
. point, f(i, j) is the gray function of the image.
Is acquisition frequency satisfied?
.
.
N .
Y .
Keeping data
. Y
.
.
Termination .
. X
.
Fig. 4: Flow chart of control program to measure force and .
displacement . Z
.
.
is calculated by the required displacement of the weather- .
stripping material, the pace angle of the stepper motor .
and the transmission ratio of the gear and feed screw nut. .
The frequency of impulsion outputted by computer deter- . Fig. 5: Seal section view
mines the speed of the stepper motor and it determines .
the speed of compression of the weather-stripping. The .
speed of compression can be chosen when changing the .
frequency of computer output impulsion. The choice of .
.
compression speed is of great importance on the defor- .
mation measurement under the load, because the defor- .
mation of weather-stripping is related not only to the dis- .
placement but also to the speed. The data from the force .
sensor and the displacement measured by the grating are .
collected through the A / D converter and COM serial port. .
2. The measurement of 2D images of a 3D object can be .
obtained with a pick up camera via collinearity. The .
points in the image have a certain relation with the cor- .
responding points of the object. The principle of the ster- .
.
eovision test is the same as that of the human eye. When .
two images of a point are taken from different directions, .
the actual spatial position can be deduced with a certain .
relation. As a kind of non-contact system with simple .
structure, the system is mobile and able to collect data . Fig. 6: Processed image results of seal section view

28 EXPERIMENTAL TECHNIQUES January/February 2003

 TECHNIQUES

EXPERIMENTAL ANALYSIS FOR

COMPRESSION DEFORMATION

In this paper, a recursive algorithm is used to remove the
interference signal that escapes the filtration according to
the fact that the energy (area) of the measured point is
greatly different from that of the interference point. Figure
7 is the main flow process chart of the procedure.
The location of the energy center of the ‘bright spot’ in the
image is acquired after running the procedure. After further
calculation, the spatial position of the measured point can
be obtained.
With the method above, the respective size and direction of
the measured points in the section are known by measuring
.
. from the upper to the lower edge of the image of the camera.
. Then, the camera is rotated to a given angle, making the
. measured area move from the left to the right edge of the
. image. Figure 8 shows the results of the above experiment.
.
. According to Figure 8, the results of the stereovision system
. are very close to that of the grating within the measurement
.
. range. Therefore, the conclusion is that that the stereovision
.
.
. 0.55
.
.

Distance of movement (mm)

the sections with different seal compression during the pro-
cess of compression.
Accuracy of the Stereovision Measurement System
Two cameras (CCD—MTV—858) with a resolution of
500(H)*582(V) are used in the system. To assess the accu-
racy of the system, a grating with a resolution error of 0.005
mm and the cameras are simultaneously used to measure
the displacement of a point. Accuracy of the stereovision is
obtained by comparing the results of the two measuring sys-
tems. In order to verify the accuracy of the system within
the whole measurement range, the measured point moves in
the Y direction at first, causing the measured area to move
. 0.5
.
.
. 0.45
.
. 0.4
. The measurement results of optical grating
. The measurement results of CCD
. 0.35
. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
. Measurement order number
.
.
. Fig. 8: Comparison of measurement results between CCD
and optical grating

Start

I=1

Is the Ith image point the computing point?

N
Y

The computing point enters the recursive program I=I+1

Is the ‘ bright-spot’ judged by using the

energy method?

Record the point center coordinate

Is the number I equal to sum of image points?

N
Y

End

Fig. 7: Main program flow diagram

January/February 2003 EXPERIMENTAL TECHNIQUES 29

 TECHNIQUES

EXPERIMENTAL ANALYSIS FOR

COMPRESSION DEFORMATION

.
measurement system has high accuracy, which is minimally . 2.5
influenced by the position in the image with minor change .
2
of the distance between the point and the camera. .
. 1.5

THE RESULTS OF EXPERIMENT . 1

.
The compression deformation of the sections of two different .

Displacement (mm)
0.5
kinds of weather-stripping seals with a total compression of .
6.5 mm is measured respectively. In the process of compres- . 0

sion, the camera is used for 13 measurements to obtain the . -0.5

relations among the displacements of the measured point . -1
in the section, and the vertical compression of weather- . Displacement in Z Direction
stripping seals includes the vertical effort of the weather- . -1.5
Displacement in Y Direction
stripping. In this paper, one result is presented. The initial . -2
Displacement in X Direction

configuration and the terminal configuration of the section .

. -2.5
are shown in Figure 9, and the relation between the dis- . 0 -1 -2 -3 -4 -5 -6
placement of the measured point in the section and the ver- . Seal Compression (mm)
tical compression of weather-stripping is shown in Figures .
10a–10d. . Fig. 10b: Relationship between the displacement of point 2
. and seal compression
In Figures 10a–10d, Z is the normal direction of the section .
of weather-stripping, and Y is the vertical direction. The first .
point is related to the highest point in Figure 5, and the . 4
second point is related to the second highest point. Other .
points follow the above principle. . 3
.
. 2
The compression deformation of the weather-stripping in the .
Displacement (mm)

main deformed plane (X–Y) is shown in Figure 11 to directly . 1

.
. 0
.
. -1
.
Displacement in Z Direction
Y . -2
Displacement in Y Direction
X .
Displacement in X Direction
. -3
.
-4
.
Z . 0 -1 -2 -3 -4 -5 -6

. Seal Compression (mm)

.
The first measurement The 13th measurement . Fig. 10c: Relationship between the displacement of point 3
. and seal compression
Fig. 9. Outline drawing of seal deformation .
.
.
1 . 2
. 1.5
0 .
. 1
-1 .
Displacement (mm)

Displacement (mm)

. 0.5

-2 . 0
.
-3 . -0.5
.
-1
-4 Displacement in Z Direction .
. Displacement in Z Direction
Displacement in Y Direction -1.5 Displacement in Y Direction
-5 .
Displacement in X Direction . -2 Displacement in X Direction

-6 .
-2.5
0 -1 -2 -3 -4 -5 -6 .
0 -1 -2 -3 -4 -5 -6
Seal Compression (mm)
.
. Seal Compression (mm)
.
Fig. 10a: Relationship between the displacement of point 1 . Fig. 10d: Relationship between the displacement of point 4
and seal compression . and seal compression

30 EXPERIMENTAL TECHNIQUES January/February 2003

 TECHNIQUES

EXPERIMENTAL ANALYSIS FOR

COMPRESSION DEFORMATION

.
0 . The results of the above experiments play an important role
. in studying the deformation performance of weather-
Displacement in Y direction (mm)

–2
. stripping and verification of FEA results.
–4 .
. CONCLUSION
–6
.
–8 . With the testing system of the weather-stripping compres-
. sion deformation we have developed, the complex force—
–10
. displacement—deformation response can be obtained, which
–12 . is helpful to determine the effects of different structures of
. weather-stripping on the closing effort. This work also indi-
–14
. cates the fundamentals of design and optimization of
–16 . weather-stripping with advanced CAE software.
.
–18
–5 0 5 10 .
Displacement in X direction (mm) . References
— movement of the points on the seal of Santana B2
.
. 1. Wagner, D.A., Morman, K.N., Gur, J.Y., et al., ‘‘Nonlinear
+ — movement of the points on the seal of Santana 2000 Analysis of Automotive Door Weather-stripping Seals,’’ Finite Ele-
.
. ments in Analysis and Design, 28: 33–50 (1997).
Fig. 11: Measurement results of seal deformation . 2. Li, D.K., Optical Grating Measuring Technology, Metering
. Publishing House of China, Beijing, P.R. China (1987).
. 3. Yin, Y.Z., Advanced Utility Tutorial of C Language, Publishing
.
reflect the deformation of weather-stripping. The square (▫) . House of Tsinghua University, Beijing, P.R. China (1992).
stands for weather-stripping of Santana B2 and the plus (⫹) . 4. Xu, J.H., Image Processing and Analyzing, Science Publishing
symbol stands for that of Santana 2000. . House, Beijing, P.R. China (1994). 䡵

January/February 2003 EXPERIMENTAL TECHNIQUES 31