Virtual Assessment of Seating Comfort with Human Models

This study deals with the usability of the newly developed MADYMO human models for seat development. Three models consisting of FE-buttocks, SAE H-point mannequin and multi-body 50th percentile occupant model were used to predict the static and dynamic behavior of a man on a car seat, i.e. pressure distribution, H-Point position and behavior under vertical vibrations. Part of the investigation was also an FE seat model especially adapted to seating comfort referring to a medium-class BMW vehicle. On the same basis, hardware tests have been performed at BMW to compare the results with the simulation runs.

As a result, it shows that it is possible to get usable seat pressure distributions and h-point values with the models, whereas an improvement of the foam model seems necessary to get reliable transmissibility data.