Dynamic response of a portable electronic product subjected to an impact load

In today's world, hand held electronic products are becoming more and more popular. It is not uncommon that these electronic products accidentally drop on the ground. The accidental shook or impact load on these products leads to breakage of circuitry inside Printed Circuit Board (PCB) which may cause malfunction or total failure of the product. Manufacturers usually determine the fragility of such products by conducting experimental drop tests, which are not only expensive but also time consuming. An alternative approach is to develop analytical dynamic model and to perform numerical simulations. In this paper, the drop impact response of the mobile phone is investigated. We decoupled this problem to be a two-step analysis, First, finite elemental analysis is used to determine the stiffness for the housing and the PCB. Second, the predictive dynamic model method is developed to investigate the drop impact response of the system. Parameter studies have been done on the basis of performed analysis. An engineering guideline for preliminary selection of the mass and stiffness of housing are developed, so that dynamic stability is maintained. Time and frequency response has been performed to study the peak acceleration, maximum displacement in the portable electronic product. Finally, the developed model is applied to evaluate dynamic response of commercially used mobile phone.