Numerical Simulation of Weather-Strip Wrinkle

The automotive door system's weather-strip seals play a crucial role in determining the degree of door closure, sealing the passenger cabin from water, and reducing wind noise inside the vehicle. Wrinkles often occur when installing weather-strips on door surfaces with bent or twisted profiles, affecting both the closure tightness and the noise insulation properties of the car door system. This study characterizes the wrinkling of Ethylene Propylene Diene Monomer (EPDM) automotive weather-strip seals during bending and identifies critical conditions for wrinkle formation. The hyper elastic behaviour of the seal's EPDM sponge and dense EPDM rubber was modeled using the Foam and Mooney-Rivlin models, respectively. A Finite Element Analysis (FEA) model of the automotive weatherstrip seal was then developed and analysed using the linear FEA software Abaqus to determine the deformation and thickness reduction in areas prone to wrinkling. Finally, the critical criteria for wrinkle formation were determined through reaction force analysis in these areas. The proposed analytical method significantly reduces the product design cycle and cuts down on design and prototype costs.