This presentation was made at the NAFEMS Eastern European Seminar "Engineering Analysis & Simulation in the Automotive Industry" held on the 7th of November in Bucharest.

Automotive manufacturers and suppliers are constantly challenged with delivering innovative, safe, and dependable vehicles to market as efficiently as possible. As a result, engineering teams must discover, evaluate, and successfully implement leading-edge technology and methods to produce a reliable, effective outcome. Many of these efforts now come together under concepts such as Industry 4.0, Digital Twin, CAE Democratization, and Cloud Solutions. But what do these really mean for you, as a simulation specialist?

Resource Abstract

Renault Technologie Roumanie (RTR) is the most important R&D subsidiary of Renault’s Engineering, outside of France, in charge with the development of Dacia/Renault Passenger Vehicle Range named Global Access.



In the paper, we follow and explain the decision-making process concerning the gap dimension between tailgate and side-body of Renault vehicle fully developed by RTR. It’s about a combination of technical and visual evaluations in order to prepare the best decision concerning the final technical solution to be industrialized.



The overslamming numerical simulation showed a risk of metal-metal contact in the upper corner above the rear-lamp, which imposed to increase the gap dimension between the tailgate and the side-body. A bigger gap could offer an undesired view of technical area which normally must remain hidden to the client. This risk was revealed in a Perceived Quality Analysis on the 2D Realistic Rendering Visual Mockup, but the level of issue’s criticality was uncertain.



The next analysis in 3D Immersive and Interactive Virtual Reality (CAVE) confirmed that this issue is not a blocking point, but a risk to cover-up. A back-up solution was developed at that time to be applied only if the undesired visual effect will be confirmed at the further evaluation on physical prototype which was available much later.