Modeling Method and Effect of Seat Cover on the Simulation of Interface Pressure

It is generally considered that the material properties of foam are the most important factors in vehicle seat, which affect the human-seat interface pressure. Therefore, only the role of foam is usually considered when the finite element method is used to simulate the human-seat interface pressure. In this paper, the mechanical properties and the modeling method of commonly used seat cover material were studied. The models of the seat with and without cover were established respectively according to the real-vehicle seat geometric data, and the human-seat interface pressure was simulated after the seat and human model consisting of bones, soft tissue and skin were assembled. The simulation result was compared with the actual measurement results from test, which verified the accuracy of the simulation and the role of seat cover in the human-seat interface pressure simulation. The comparison showed that the surface stiffness of the seat was greatly affected by the seat cover, which further affected the deformation and interaction caused by the contact between seat and human body, the interface pressure distribution and even the driver's sitting posture in the simulation. It was concluded that the effect of seat cover should not be easily ignored. The simulation method described in this paper can also predict the human-seat interface pressure distribution more accurately and quickly at the early stage of design, and can be used for functional verification or comfort evaluation.