Structural Performance Evaluation of Voltage Stabilizer Module Bracket in Instrument Panel

Instrument Panel (IP) in a vehicle has multiple attachment brackets that hold various modules, sensors, speakers, switches etc., and one such bracket is the Voltage Stabilizer Module (VSM) bracket. This bracket holding both VSM and Inverter Module (IM). These brackets are more vulnerable to vibration loads which are random in nature, that occur during customer usage of vehicles on the roads or during vehicle testing on Proving ground. During the design of the VSM bracket, the vibration loads should be considered for the evaluation of structural performance of this bracket.

The objective of this study is to predict the stress and fatigue life of the VSM bracket while subjected to random vibration load. Virtual simulations are used to evaluate the stress and fatigue life of the bracket. Random response analysis is performed to find the strength of the bracket and vibration fatigue simulation is performed to predict the life of the bracket. The calculated fatigue life is also compared with physical test results. This paper also explains the root cause of low fatigue life on VSM Bracket and provides the solution.