Analyzing Elastomer Automotive Body Seals Using LS-DYNA

Several different elastomer automotive body seals (weatherstrips or weather seals) are analyzed using explicit solver of LS-DYNA. The results are compared with those obtained from non-linear finite element analysis (FEA) solvers widely used for elastomer analysis as well as the experimental results. It is found that properly modeled LS-DYNA can be a very good tool for elastomer body seal analysis, especially for the analysis with potential instabilities, such as snap-through, loss-of-contact, severe slip-stick, and complicated contact problems.