Physical Modelling of a door locking mechanism for a vehicle application

Physical modeling is a modeling and simulation technique that captures the physics and mathematics of a system through high fidelity dynamic models which are based on equations and symbolic manipulation. In this study, a physical model of a side door latch release mechanism for an automotive application has been developed in Dynamic Modelling Laboratory (Dymola) which is a popular multi-domain object-oriented physical modelling tool. The performance of the developed door lock model is evaluated against measurements from a real vehicle door latch. The variables of the developed physical model of the door latch are parameterized against supplier specification or calculated from standard textbook equations. The model accurately emulates the degree of mobility of the door latch design by investigating the required voltage and timing requirements for the locking/unlocking functions, given a set of parameters within the normal operating range.