Finite Element Modelling of Car Seat with Hyperelastic and Viscoelastic Foam Material Properties to Assess Vertical Vibration in Terms of Acceleration

Primary objective of automobile seats is to offer adequate level of safety and comfort to the seated human occupant, primarily against vibration. Ideally, any sort of automotive seat is constructed by mechanical framework, cushion, backrest and headrest. The frame structures are made of metallic alloys, while the cushion, backrest and headrest are made of polyurethane foam material. During the design phase of automotive seat, the greatest challenge is to assign realistic material properties to foam material; as it is non-linear in nature and exhibit hysteresis at low level stress. In this research paper, a car seat has been modelled in finite element environment by implementing both hyperelastic and viscoelastic material properties to polyurethane foam. The car seat has been excited with the loads due to car acceleration and human object and the effects of vibration in terms of vertical acceleration at different locations have been measured. The aims of this simulation study are to establish a car seat with the foam material properties as accurately as possible and provide a finite element set up of car seat to monitor the vertical acceleration responses in a reasonable way. The RMS acceleration values for headrest, backrest and cushion have been found to be 0.91 mm/sec², 0.54 mm/sec² and 0.47 mm/sec², respectively, which showed that the car seat foam can effectively be modelled through combined hyperelastic and viscoelastic material formulations. The simulation outputs have been validated through real life testing data, which clearly indicates that this computerized simulation technique is capable of anticipating the acceleration responses at different car seat segments in a justified way.