DESIGN AND ANALYSIS OF A PLASTIC DOOR

MODULE FOR CAR BODY APPLICATION

S. Vinay Seeba1, S. Srikari2, V. K. Banthia 3
1- (Engg.) Student, 2- Professor, 3- Professor and Head of Department
Department of Automotive Design and Engineering
M. S. Ramaiah School of Advanced Studies, Bangalore

Abstract
Door module is preassembly of various components on a carrier plate which can be directly mounted onto the door
inner panel. These door modules, when directly shipped to the OEM’s, save assembly time and cost in mass
manufacturing. Long fiber reinforced thermoplastic polypropylene (PP-LFT) with glass filled fiber material is used for
various automotive applications as it has improved structural and material properties over conventional materials like
steel. Door modules made of PP-LFT material is manufactured using injection molding method. Although significant
work was done on design and analysis of plastic door modules, there was no support information on how the final design
of the door module was arrived at.
Topology and shape optimisation were used in the present investigation to arrive at a design. 30 % glass filled
STAMAX® PP-LFT door modules were used to replace the existing steel door module plate. Stress analysis and dynamic
door slam analysis were carried out on the door module of new design to assess its performance under various durability
loading conditions. Finally Mold flow simulation was performed on the door module part to check its manufacturability in
mass manufacturing.
Final design of STAMAX® PP-LFT based plastic door module is 33 % lighter than the existing steel door module
plate and has improved strength, stiffness and manufacturability.
Key Words: Plastic Door Module, Door Slam, Mold Flow Analysis, STAMAX®

Nomenclature assembly time and hence cost. Thus, design and

manufacture of door modules is very important.
E Young’s Modulus, MPa
V Linear velocity, m/s
ω Angular Velocity, rad/sec
ρ Density, tones/mm3
Abbreviations
PP-LFT Long fiber reinforced thermoplastic
polypropylene.
1. INTRODUCTION
Doors are one of the major components in a car
which provide easy access for passengers into the car.
With the growing demand on car styling, comfort,
safety and other systems integration (window regulator, Fig. 1 Door module
latch, speaker, motor and electronics) in the door, A door module should perform the following
designing this system is a great challenge to engineers. functions
Door system mainly consists of window glass, window
regulator assembly, door latch, sealing and structural  Window regulatory function
components of the door assembly. Traditionally these  Latch function
parts were designed, manufactured and procured  Speaker function
separately. A door module is an assembly of functional  Sealing function
elements mounted onto a carrier plate. Unlike
conventional door systems, where the window regulator A door module offers several advantages over
assembly was directly attached to the door inner panel, conventional door systems. Some important advantages
the door module comprises of a carrier plate with include [1].
window regulator assembly, glass motor and speaker.  Higher structural strength
The window regulator consists of a motor assembly,
 Better sealing against water vapour and hence door
one or two rails to guide the glass motion, cursor or
modules are called “Sealed Carrier Systems”
glass clamps to support the glass, and mechanisms to
 Better noise insulation
move the glass up and down. The window regulator,
speaker, and other wire harnesses are mounted on the  Dry side mounting of motor and door electronic
components
carrier plate using bolts, rivets, and clips. Detailed
figure of door module assembly is shown in Figure 1.  Weight savings and hence cost savings due to
The carrier plate is bolted to the inner panel. This reduced sheet metal on the door inner panel
module approach helps the car makers in reducing

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 Reduced original equipment assembly operations
as the module is directly bolted to the door inner
panel
2. PROBLEM DEFINITION
The present day cars use steel door modules for
door structure. Steel door modules are heavier, costlier
for assembling and require more time during assembly
of doors due to non-integration of components.
Literature review presented a great amount of
research on door module design and analysis,
application of plastic material for automotive structures
like door modules. From literature study it was found
that there were no references on how the final design of
plastic door module was arrived. For example Won-
Jong Noh et al. [2] required 8 design iterations to arrive
at the final design of plastic door module to replace
existing steel door module. The disadvantages with the
steel door module and design methodology of door
module development provided an opportunity to
explore alternate design process methodology and
application of plastic material for door module in car
body application.
2.1 Definition of the Problem
To design and analyze a plastic door module for
car body application to achieve a weight reduction of
20% compared to existing weight of steel door module.
2.2 Objectives
1. To review literature on door design, development
of door modules, durability assessment of door
designs
2. To benchmark steel door module for strength and
durability requirements
3. To design a plastic door module to meet the
application requirements
4. To assess the plastic door module with respect to
durability and manufacturability. Achieve at least
20% weight saving over existing steel door module
2.3 Methodology
1. Design of door module was understood using
literature, journals, books and other reference
media.
2. Surface model of existing front door assembly
with steel door module plate was created using
CATIA-v5-r17 using reverse engineering.
3. Benchmark values for existing door assembly
under durability loads were arrived by performing
stress analysis using Altair HyperMesh, Ansys,
and LS-Dyna.
4. Plastic door module to replace existing steel door
module was designed with help of optimisation
using Altair Optistruct v9.0 and CATIA-v5-R17.
5. The plastic door module was assessed for
durability using Altair HyperMesh, Ansys and LS-
Dyna to demonstrate its performance
enhancements over existing steel door.
6. Mold flow analysis was performed using Autodesk
mold flow analysis tool to assess mass
manufacturing capabilities and to check the
warping/distortion on plastic door module.
SAS TECH
3. BENCHMARKING OF STEEL DOOR
MODULE
3.1 Geometric Model of Front Door Assembly
The geometric model of front door assembly was
generated by reverse engineering.
 Existing steel front door module plate with
window regulator mechanism was measured in the
benchmarking lab.
 Using the measured data and available CAD
drawings for other parts of front door the
geometric model of the door assembly was created.
3.2 Finite Element Modelling of Front Door
Assembly
 The geometric model of the front door assembly
was descritised into small finite elements to
analyse the structure. All the components were
modelled using shell elements at mid plane. Finite
element model of door module, glass rails and
front door assembly is shown in Figure 2.
 Since door module pull and glass motor stall
analyses are local phenomenon only door module
and glass rails were included for the study [3, 5]
 Entire front door assembly was included for door
slam analysis [3] to understand the effect of
assembly components on door module plate and
glass rails under dynamic loads.
 Door seals and latch striker interaction were
modelled as load versus displacement curves using
non-linear discrete spring in LS-Dyna [4]. Curve
plot for door seals and latch striker interaction are
shown in Figure 3
Fig. 2 Finite Element model of front door
 Based on the component geometry, the thickness
properties were applied to the corresponding shell
elements.
 All the components of the door module were
assigned with high strength low alloy SAE J2340
300 X grade steel materials [5, 6]. Detailed
material property is shown in Figure 4.
2 Volume 9, Issue 1, April 2010
 (a)

Fig. 5 Boundary condition for door module pull and

glass motor stall analysis
 For the door slam analysis body side hinges, ends
of body side seal springs and striker were
constrained in all translational and rotational
(b) degrees of freedom. The ends of seal springs on
the door side were constrained in vertical
Fig. 3 Curves used for (a) door seal and (b) latch translation (Uz) and fore-aft translation (Ux)
striker behavior degrees of freedom [3].
3.4 Model Set up for Solution
 Door module pull loads are experienced on the
door module plate when the passenger pulls the
door handle to close the door. The door module
plate was subjected to load of 200 N in the lateral
direction (Y-axis) of the vehicle co-ordinate
system as shown in Figure 6 [1, 2].

Fig. 6 Loading condition for door module pull

analysis
Fig. 4 HR SAE J2340 300X material property
 Various components of the front door assembly
were connected using rigid elements at bolt and
weld locations. Contact between mating parts were
represented using Automatic Single Surface
contact in LS-Dyna.
3.3 Boundary Conditions
 Since door module pull and glass motor stall
analyses are local phenomenon only door module
plate and glass rails are included for the analysis.
 The location where the door module plate is bolted
to the door inner panel was constrained in all
translational and rotational degrees of freedom as Fig. 7 Loading condition for glass motor stall load
shown in Figure 5. analysis

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 Fig. 8 Loading condition for door slam analysis
 When the window glass reaches full up or full
down position the motor is under maximum torque 4. DESIGN OF PLASTIC DOOR MODULE
due to winding of the drum. At this position due to USING OPTIMISATION
maximum torque the motor stalls. During stall, Plastic door module plate was designed using
rails and door module on which the rail is mounted optimisation method in Altair OptiStruct software [7].
experience maximum loads [3]. Loading condition Topology and shape optimisation were used to arrive at
for glass motor stall load analysis is shown in the final design of the door module plate.
Figure 7.
 Slam load is experienced on the door module when
the door is closed with a bang. In the present study,
door assembly was subjected to a slam speed of
1.7 m/s (1.9 rad/s). Loading condition for door
slam analysis is shown in Figure 8 [3]
Table 1. Summary of benchmark reference
parameters for steel door module

3.5 Results and Discussion

 For the door module pull analysis maximum
displacement was observed in the pull handle
region.
 For the glass motor stall analysis maximum
displacement was observed for front rail and rear
rail bottom stall loads cases. Maximum von-Mises
stress was observed for front rail and rear rail
bottom stall load cases.
 For the door slam analysis maximum von-Mises
stress was observed near rear rail lower mount
when the door strikes the latch.
 The results of door module pull, glass motor stall
and door slam analysis for existing steel door
module are summarised in Table 1. These values
are the benchmark reference parameters for plastic
door module design.
Fig. 9 STAMAX® 30YM240 material property
4.1 Material Selection for Plastic Door Module
Long fiber reinforced thermoplastic materials like
STAMAX® have excellent material properties with
improved stiffness, strength and manufacturing process
advantage [1, 2, 8, 9]. STAMAX® 30YM240 with
30% glass filled 12 mm long fiber is used for the study.
The material has Young’s Modulus of 7000 MPa and
break strength of 109 MPa at 23°C [10]. Detailed
material property values for STAMAX® 30YM240 are
shown in Figure 9.

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4.2 Topology Optimisation
 Topology optimisation is carried out to find the
load path for material distribution of plastic door
module design. For the door module plate
available packaging space was measured to be 48
mm. Design and non design space was defined in
the available packaging space. Base thickness was
assumed to be 2 mm [11,12, 13]. Detailed plot of
packaging space, design space and non design
space is shown in Figure 10.

Fig. 11 Critical load path plot from topology

optimisation

Fig. 10 Topology optimisation parameters

 Design constraints for optimisation parameters like
displacement, mass fraction, and stiffness were
defined using responses to achieve the benchmark
reference parameters tabulated in Table 1 for
plastic door module plate.
 Objective for the topology optimisation study was
to maximize stiffness of the plastic door module
part.
 Topology optimisation was carried out for door
module pull loads, glass motor stall loads, motor
and speaker self weight loads.
Fig. 12 Geometry output from topology optimisation
4.2 Results for Topology Optimisation
 The results from topology optimisation are shown
in Figure 11 and 12. Figure 11 shows the element
density plot which identifies the material
distribution in the critical load path for the design
which satisfies the design objective for the design
constraints specified. Figure 12 shows the
geometry output from topology optimisation
processed using OSS smooth in Altair OptiStruct.

Fig. 13 Shape optimisation parameters

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 Fig. 14 Final rib shape obtained from shape optimisation
4.3 Shape Optimisation reference parameters listed in Table 4.1. Final
design of the plastic door module plate is shown in
 Topology optimisation provided geometry layout Figure 15. Final weight of the plastic door module
for the plastic door module plate and location for plate is 1.2 kg.
reinforcements on the plastic door module plate to
achieve the performance parameters defined in Table 2. Fatigue life data for STAMAX® 30YM240
design constraints. Shape optimisation was
necessary to define proper shape of the rib STAMAX® 30YM240 estimated
topology. Final shape (height) of the reinforcement failure stress [MPA] at 23° C
ribs on the plastic door module carrier plate was Failure Stress,
fixed by carrying out shape optimisation in Altair Cycles, n
MPa
OptiStruct software.
1 85.0
 Shape optimisation was carried out by defining rib
geometry shape as domain and handles as shown 3,000 55.0
in Figure 13. 20,000 46.3
 Design variable for shape optimisation was defined 40,000 44.8
by varying the rib height of domains at handle 100,000 42.4
locations. Design variable for the rib shape was set
as (-1, +1).
 Design constraints, loads and boundary conditions
were similar to the design constraints used for
topology optimisation with respect to displacement
values.
 Design objective for the shape optimisation
problem was to minimize the mass.
4.4 Results for Shape Optimisation
 The results from shape optimisation are shown in
Figure 14. It shows the final rib pattern with
minimized mass of ribs overlaid on original rib
pattern. Final weight of the ribs after shape
optimisation was 43.7 grams compared to initial
weight of 61.1 grams, 28% reduction in rib weight
due to shape optimisation. Fig. 15 Plastic door module
4.5 Plastic Door Module Plate 5. VALIDATION AND RESULTS
 Final design of plastic door module plate based on  Plastic door module was assessed for door module
topology and shape optimisation results was pull, glass motor stall and door slam loads to verify
generated using CATIA V5R17. Plastic door its performance so that it can replace the existing
module plate has thickness of 2mm for the plate steel door module plate.
base and ribs. Pull handle support bracket was  Fatigue life data for STAMAX® 30YM240 is
integrated to the door module plate. Rear rail lower shown in Table 4.2.
mount was provided with double screws since the
mount had least fatigue life as per benchmarking

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 Fig. 16 Gating location for material injection into mold
 Since only the design of door module plate was
changed in the front door assembly modelling
details, section properties, contact and connection
definitions, loads and boundary condition remain
same for door module pull, glass motor stall and
door slam analysis.
 Mold flow analysis was performed on the plastic
door module plate to check for its
manufacturability by defining the mold material
inlet gating locations as shown in Figure 16.
5.1 Results and Discussion
 For the door module pull analysis maximum
displacement of 3.8 mm was observed in the pull
handle region. This value is less than 3.9 mm
observed for steel door module pull analysis.
 For the glass motor stall analysis maximum
displacement was observed for front rail and rear
rail top stall loads cases. Maximum von-Mises
stress was observed for front rail top stall and rear
rail bottom stall load cases. Maximum von-Mises
stress on the glass rails with plastic door module
plate was less than the stress observed on glass
rails with steel door module plate. Maximum
displacement on glass rails for stall analysis was 4
mm with plastic door module plate compared to
2.4 mm for steel door module plate. However there
was no interference of the glass rails with any
other assembly part of the door due to increased
Table 3. Summary of results for plastic door module
Sl No Load Case Max. displacement
mm
1 Door module pull analysis 3.8
2 Glass motor 4.0
stall load analysis
3 Door slam analysis N.A.
4 Mold Flow analysis
Out of plane distortion/warpage = 4.9 mm
5 Weight of plastic door
module plate 1.2 kg
displacement. Hence the design was assumed to be
acceptable.
 For the door slam analysis maximum von-Mises
stress of 36.1 MPa was observed near rear rail
lower mount during the door rebound after the
door slam. Maximum von-Mises stress of 22.91
MPA was observed when door hits the striker.
 Maximum von-Mises on door module plate for
door slam analysis was 36.1 MPa. Comparing the
maximum von-Mises stress value observed for
door slam analysis with the fatigue life data for
STAMAX® 30YM240 material in Table 2 it was
found that the material has fatigue life greater than
100,000 cycles, meeting the slam life standard to
be met for door module designs [3, 11].
 From mold flow analysis results it was observed
that the time required to fill the door module part
with STAMAX® material was 3.4 s. Maximum
clamp force was 750 tonnes. Maximum out of
plane distortion(warpage) on the finished part was
4.9 mm. The maximum distortion observed was
less than benchmark reference value of 5 mm [11].
Hence the plastic door module design was
assumed to be acceptable for mass manufacturing.
 The results of door module pull, glass motor stall
and door slam analysis for plastic door module
design are summarised in Table 3 below.
Max. von-Mises stress Fatigue life
MPa cycles
20.0 N.A.
256.1 N.A.
36.1 >100,000

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6. CONCLUSION of Aircraft components”, presented at Altair
engineering conference, 2003.
1. The study helped in designing plastic door module
plate for car body application using 30% glass [13] A paper entitled “A new approach for sizing, shape
fiber PP-LFT (STAMAX®) material, topology and and topology optimisation”, SAE International
shape optimisation techniques. congress and exposition, 2002, http://www.fe-
2. Final design of the plastic door module is 33% design.de/fileadmin/publikationen/publikationen19
lesser in weight with improved structural, 96/sae_org.pdf, 24th June, 2009.
properties compared to existing steel door module
plate.
3. The design and analysis methodology adopted here
to design plastic door module plate to replace
existing steel door module plate can be adopted to
design and analyse plastic parts to replace semi
structural automotive parts currently made from
steel.
7. REFERENCES
[1] Maria Ciliberti, Warden Schijve, “Developments in
Thermoplastic Door Modules” SAE Technical
paper series, 2003-01-0793, 2003.
[2] Won-Jong Noh, Min – Ho Choi, Chi Hoon Choi
and Tae Won Hwang, “Development of Door
Module Plate with Long-fiber-reinforced
Thermoplastic Polypropylene”, SAE Technical
Paper, 2006-01-0330, 2006.
[3] Devadas Kumbla, Pan Shi, Joseph Saxon,
“Simulation methods for door module design”,
SAE Technical Paper, 2005-01-0883, 2005.
[4] LS-Dyna User Manual, Version 971, 2006,
Livermore Software Technology Corporation.
[5] Kalpak Shah, Hong Tae Kang and Upendra
Deshmukh, “Design of Dual Sliding Door for a
Small Size Car and Its Validation Using CAE
Tools”, SAE Technical Paper, 2007-01-0889,
2007.
[6] HR SAE J2340 300X HSLA steel material
properties, www.a-
sp.org/database/custom/hss_stampingDesignManu
al.pdf, 24th June, 2009.
[7] HyperWorks User Manual, Version 9.0, 2009,
Altair Incorporation, www.altair.com
[8] Takahiro Tochioka, “Development of integrated
Functions Module Carriers by Injection Molding
with Long Glass Fiber Reinforced Polypropylene”,
SAE Technical Paper series, 2003-01-2810, 2003.
[9] Manish Chaturvedi, Warden Schijve, Matthew
Marks, “Advanced Thermoplastic Composites for
Automotive Semi Structural Application”, SAE
Technical Paper, 2009-26-086, 2009.
[10] Unanimous,
http://plastics.sabic.eu/_scripts/gradeselector.pl?
product=196c0e98-0f0e-4fd4-a476-
51f83d2b8888&template=product, 15th August,
2009.
[11] Scott E. Zilincik, Wm. Jeffrey DeFrank, and Scott
G. Miller, “Slam Life Assessment Method for
Closures Durability” SAE Technical Paper,
982307, 1998.
[12] A paper entitled “Application of topology, sizing
and shape optimisation methods to optimal design

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