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Simulation of Structural Latches in an Automotive Seat

System Using LS-DYNA
Tuhin Halder
Lear Corporation, U152 Group
5200, Auto Club Drive
Dearborn, MI 48126 USA.
+ 313 845 0492
[email protected]
Keywords: Automotive Seat, Structural Latch, FMVSS 207/210
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ABSTRACT
Latches play an increasingly vital role in an automotive seat system due to the recent
introduction of the mandatory 3-point restraint system for center occupants. Traditionally,
latches were designed to carry the seat back load, the head restraint load, and the luggage
intrusion load. For the new Seat Integrated Restraint (SIR) systems, latches have to meet a
very high load requirement with a very low range of allowable displacement. Hence, a latch
has to meet its basic function, which is to fold and tumble, and it has to pass this stringent
non-linear loading condition.
Finite Element Analysis (FEA) has been widely used to simulate latches on a component
level. With the introduction of the displacement requirement limitation for the SIR retractor,
component level analysis is redundant. The paper discusses an efficient new method to
simulate the seat system along with latches that yield meaningful results and a consistent
level of correlation.
INTRODUCTION
The design of a structural latch for a seat system has become more and more complicated
because of the various kinds of loading conditions that it has to pass. This is over and above
the fact that a latch needs to fulfill the basic kinematics and still meet the strict packaging
constraints for styling and comfort purposes. Latches are designed for rearward loading
conditions such as the seat back strength test and head restraint test. The forward loads are
generally the inertia load of the seat system during a dynamic test and the luggage retention
load when the seat back is impacted by solid blocks. Also, depending on the height and the
H-point of the seat system, latches are subjected to ISOFIX loading as per the new FMVSS
225 requirements.
The severest of all the loading conditions is the seat belt anchorage load due to the 3-point
restraint system. For vehicles with more than two rows of seats such as Sport Utility
Vehicles (SUVs) and minivans, the second row seat system can have various configurations.
For a 2-occupant seat system, the retractor for the seat restraint, in most cases, is mounted on
the seat pillar and the belts are buckled on to the seat mounting brackets. In case of a 3-
occupant seat system, the two out-board occupants will have a similar arrangement. The
center occupant generally has a lap-belt-only restraint system attached to the seat brackets
that mount on the floor pan. For the 2002 models for European and the 2004 models for the
North American markets, 3-point restraint system is a mandatory requirement for the
forward facing center seats. In an SIR seat, the restraint for the shoulder belt is mounted on
the top of the seat back. The latch, which holds the seat back in its upright position, has to
be designed accordingly to hold this huge moment generated by the shoulder belt.
A seat latch generally consists of an arm that attaches to the seat back. This upper arm
rotates about the seat system pivot point and folds the seat. The upper arm locks the seat
back at the upright position (design position) and at the folded down position. Depending on
the kinematics of the seat system, complicated inner mechanisms are used to achieve this.
These mechanisms are supported by package plates that attach to the floor mounting
brackets.
For the SIR seats, the seat belts are attached to the seat. Hence, it has to comply with the
requirements under the FMVSS 207 as well as FMVSS 210[1] loading conditions. These
standard apply to seats, their attachment assemblies, and seat belt assembly anchorages and
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are to ensure their proper location for effective occupant restraint and minimize the
possibility of their failure by forces acting on them as a result of vehicle impact. United
Nations regulation ECE14[2] restricts the forward displacement of retractors beyond the H-
point of the seat system. This strict displacement requirement makes it impossible to design
a latch by itself. Figure 1 shows a 2
nd
row seat system under the 207/210 loading condition.
Loading Conditions
The seat structure was mounted on to a rigid fixture with the seat back in the design
position. A rigid load bar was attached to the seat back frame, at the CG of the seat system.
A forward load, equivalent to 23 times the weight of the seat was applied linearly to the load
bar in 30 seconds and was held for 11 seconds. Simultaneously, a forward load of 3450 lbf
(15,346N) was applied to each of the shoulder and the lap blocks. This load is 15% above
the FMVSS requirement of 3000 lbf (13,344 N).
Figure 1. A 2
nd
row SIR seat subjected to 207/210 load.
APPROACH
In the automotive seating industry, FEA is performed as a part of the mainstream design
process and it drives the structural design, especially for the purpose of designing for safety
and NVH. Generally, different loading conditions on a structural latch were simulated on a
component level. Development was done by the latch supplier. The latch assembly was
meshed in detail using solid elements and was simulated for various load cases. Once, a
reasonable level of confidence was gained, the design was approved to be packaged into the
seat system. With the introduction of the stringent displacement requirements, the design
and the verification process has changed. To design a robust structural latch, the whole seat
system has to be analyzed in order to get meaningful results that comply with these new
requirements.
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FEA Setup
The static loading condition mentioned above was simulated using LS-DYNA by loading the
seat quasi-statically. The applied load was attained in 60ms and was held for 10ms.
The majority of the seat structures are made up of metal stampings and tubes and were
modeled using shell elements. Bolts and rivets that attach the different parts of the seat
assembly together were modeled using beam elements. Pivoting action of the seat back and
the internal components of the latch were modeled using pivot-beam elements which were
regular beam elements with a very low value of polar moment of inertia (J). The rigid fixture
was modeled using shell elements and was assigned rigid material property. The FE seat
model was connected to the rigid fixture using a method developed at Lear Corporation [3].
*CONSTRAINED_SPOTWELD and *CONSTRAINED_NODAL_RIGID_BODY were
used for connections. *CONTACT_AUTOMATIC_SINGLE_SURFACE[4] was used to
define contact. The seating system discussed here is in the development phase. Hence,
limited information will be revealed about the exact geometry and the material properties of
different components.
Old Method
A detailed latch model, meshed with layered solid elements, as used during the component
level analysis, can have elements in the range of 5000 or more. This combined with the seat
model would make the analysis of a whole seat assembly inefficient. Hence, the seat model
was assembled using a simplified latch assembly. Shell elements were used to represent the
upper arm, the internal mechanisms, and the package plates. The components were assigned
its respective thickness. All the internal mechanisms were connected with the assumption
that the latch will remain locked at the seat design position. The upper arm and the package
plates were made up of stamped, high strength steel. The thickness were in the range of 2.50
to 3.00 mm. Due to the huge amount of load that these latches need to carry, the internal
mechanisms are powder metallurgy parts made up of high strength steel. The thickness were
in the range of 6.00 to 8.00 mm.
Figure 2. Deformed upper arm using the old method.
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The seat system was loaded as per the conditions described earlier. Reasonable mass scaling
was done following the basic guidelines for quasi-static analysis[5]. The only failure mode
was found in the upper arm with a maximum plastic strain of 23.6%. The deformed strain
plot of the side view of the upper arm is shown in Figure 2. Excessive deformation of the
upper arm displaced the SIR retractor beyond the H-point. The simulation showed the
maximum plastic strain values of the internal components, well within the permissible limits
of the material used. This method predicted failure of the seat system.
The physical test performed on this seat system showed a different kind of failure mode. One
of the internal mechanisms failed whereas the upper arm deformed much less than what was
predicted by the analysis. Hence, the seat back could not hold the load and the retractor
moved past the H-point.
New Method
It was obvious from the previous method that the internal mechanisms were not modeled
properly to represent the physical test. The kinematics was simulated well and the seat back
did not unlatch. But, the load transfer did not correlate with the physical test and resulted in
a different failure mode. To overcome this problem and to achieve a better correlation, a new
method was developed.
Component level analysis using solid elements had been successfully used to simulate
different loads on a latch assembly. Since the internal mechanisms were the area of concern,
they were modeled using fully integrated solid elements. Figure 3 illustrates a package plate
meshed using shell elements and the internal mechanisms, modeled with solids. Table 1
shows the comparison of the FE entities used.
Figure 3. Combination of shell and solid elements to represent a latch assembly.
Part A
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One of the internal mechanisms, labeled as part A, failed during the test. All the connections
were same as the previous method. Contact was defined to transfer the load between the
internal mechanisms. Previously, when the shell elements were used, internal mechanisms
were welded at the areas of contact.
Table1. Summary of the FE entities.
Entity Old method New method
Nodes 16750 19961
Shell Elements 17573 17719
Solid Elements 0 292
Beam Elements 86 86
Welds and NRBs 92 98
The behavior of the seat system using the new method was exactly like the physical test.
Figure 4a shows the plastic strain plot of part A. The maximum strain measured was 11.6%,
around the pivot hole area. Part A cracked at the same area during the physical test
correlating the load path. The deformation mode of the upper arm correlated as well.
Further iterations were performed using this correlated model. By making some minor
design changes in the latch assembly, the seat system was able to hold the load. Figure 4b
shows the strain plot of the modified part A, with the maximum plastic strain of 1.26%. The
location of the maximum strain was also at a non-critical area. Figure 5 shows the deformed
strain plot of the side view of the upper arm. The maximum plastic strain measured was
8.2%, well below the permissible limits of the material used.
Figure 4a. Strain plot of part A using the new method.
Figure 4b. Lower strain at a non-critical area after the design changes.
SUMMARY
A very quick and a simple change in defining the critical load carrying components yielded
an excellent correlation. Occupant safety regulations are becoming more and more stringent.
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Component level analysis will phase out and suppliers of different components will have to
work together for better system level simulations. Instead of validating individual
components and assemblies, efficient energy management as a system can only lead to a
viable design. Number of elements used in the above analysis were around 18,000. Total
elements will easily exceed 100,000 when this model will be assembled on the body-in-white
of a vehicle. In order to get meaningful results from these huge system level models, the
method discussed above can be very efficient and cost effective. For complicated systems that
need to withstand huge load, this method can successfully correlate a physical test with an
LS-DYNA simulation.
Figure 5. Strain plot of the deformed upper arm after the design changes.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to thank the management of Lear Corporation's U152 program for encouraging
the use of FEA as a part of the design and development process and allowing the group to
experiment with new techniques. Srini Pejathaya of Fisher Dynamics Inc. for the active
support during the development phase. This work would have been incomplete without the
inputs of Todd Harris, Steve Telesco, and Vito Mannino.
REFERENCES
[ 1 ] Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (49 CFR PART 571): MVSS 207/210. Final
amendment: FR Vol. 63 # 113 - 12.06.1998
[ 2 ] United Nations Agreement. Reg. Name: UN/ECE Seat Belt Anchorages. Reg. Number
ECE-14.05, Page 15.
[ 3 ] HALDER, T., MANNINO, V. F., and WILLIAMS, D. K. (1999). "Simulation of Bolts
and Washers using LS-DYNA for Seat attachments and correlation with the test data". 2
nd
European LS-DYNA Users Conference, Gothenburg, Sweden.
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[ 4 ] LS-DYNA User's Manual, V.950, 1999. LSTC, Livermore, CA.
[ 5 ] SCHWEIZERHOF, K., WALZ, M., RUST, W., FRANZ, U., KRICHNER, M. (1999).
"Quasi-static Structural Analysis with LS-DYNA- Merits and Limits". 2
nd
European LS-
DYNA Users Conference, Gothenburg, Sweden.