Flow characteristics in a cabin during door closure

Abstract

Many studies relating to vehicle door closure have focused on noise and vibration, and little attention has been given to the pressure rise or velocity distribution inside a cabin. Too high a pressure rise may, however, exert a resistive force when a car door closes and induce a mechanical reaction of the pars flaccida related to passenger comfort. Thus, this study investigates the effects of the angular velocity of the door and the body leakage on variations in the cabin flows. First, tests for the body leakage were performed for 43 vehicles. Then, three-dimensional numerical analyses with a dynamic mesh were performed and experiments were conducted to verify the results. It was found that the pressure rise is a strong function of the door's angular velocity and that the peak pressure increases almost linearly with increasing angular velocity. However, the body leakage has less effect on the pressure rise unless the extent of the leakage is significantly increased. The pressure rise that occurs while closing a cabin door could be greatly reduced by lowering the door's angular velocity or by developing a mechanism that can greatly increase the body leakage temporarily.