Application of the Design of Experiments to Study the Sensitivity and Contribution of a Seat Back Bladder Bolster on Occupant Lateral Support Performance

Automotive seat comfort systems provide occupants with a choice to adjust the seat to individual preference, enhancing the customized comfort feel. Seat comfort systems such as massager, lumbar support bladders, seat cushion bolster bladders and seat back bolster bladders are increasingly adopted in automotive seats as customer demand for customizable seats is on the rise. Development of seat comfort systems is mainly driven by Tier 1 suppliers to an automotive original equipment manufacturer (OEM). The Automotive OEM must wait until the final seat prototype is ready with all the seat comfort systems packaged to evaluate the seat comfort performance. Computer Aided Engineering (CAE) Tools like CASIMIR provide detail dummies representing humans with tissues and muscles, allowing occupant seat comfort to be predicted virtually. This study describes the development of a CAE based seat back bolster bladder evaluation method focusing on seat comfort performance to drive design during early stages of vehicle development. The study specifically uses the Design of Experiments approach to understand the effect of input factors on the seat back bolster bladder lateral performance.