Abstract: Rear door opening took place in an MDB (moving deformable barrier) side impact evaluation test for a vehicle. A simulation model with completely the same conditions as those of the test was established based on CAE (computer aided engineering) simulation to solve this problem, with the model simulated using LS-DYNA software. The simulation results agree well with the test results. The reason for door opening is that the local mount area where the rear door outer handle was located had serve deformation and distortion, resulting in the outer handle opening operation in side impact. The optimized structure test result is the same as the simulation. The optimized structure is obviously improved compared with the original structure. The results show that a well correlated model is the basis for solving the problem. Therefore, CAE correlated optimization analysis ensures the design target and product development plan with less development time and cost, and with less test times.

Key words: automotive engineering, passivity safety, side impact test, vehicle rear door, mobile deformable barrier (MDB), computer aided engineering (CAE) simulation