Hood Slam Process Automator

This paper deals with the development of a Hood Slam Process Automator (PA) to automate the pre-processing tasks of the virtual slam assessment with non-linear Nastran Transient Sol. 129 on all types of hoods. The slam analysis generally consumes a lot of analyst's time for building the slam models, typically six hours and is very tedious and has the potential for errors. The Hood Slam PA will automatically create and perform slam analysis pre-processing tasks within HyperMesh software such as creating latch striker interface, creating seals and bumpers with CBUSH1D elements, assigning transient slam speed to the hood and will finally generate the Nastran non-linear transient (Sol.129) hood slam analysis input files. The ready to run analysis input files will be submitted to the Nastran solver and the analysis results will then be post processed using HyperView software. The Hood Slam PA will assist the CAE engineer to predict the amount of hood over travel, striker loads and evaluate the slam durability life in a more efficient and cost effective manner. It also improves accuracy and repeatability by developing a standardized procedure for performing slam analysis. Slam analysis models can now be built in less than fifteen minutes. This paper brings out the features incorporated into the Hood Slam PA through an actual design example and also correlates the analysis data with test results.