Finite element analysis of a sport car seat strength in low speed rear end impacts

Car manufacturers need to introduce their new model designs to stay competitive. In recent years, safety in car crashes has become a major aspect by which car manufacturers can distinguish their products from their competitors. The performance of a vehicle’s seat back in rear impact accidents can significantly affect occupant kinematics and resulting injury potential. With the advent of Computer Aided Engineering (CAE), Finite Element Analysis (FEA) has become a necessity for the automotive industry to improve and validate all manner of automotive structures. The application of FEA during the design cycle has increased significantly making validation of the FE Models used essential. A comparison of a seat’s structural response during dynamic sled testing is a very effective method of evaluating the accuracy of the FE Models employed. The goal of the seat development cycle was to redesign a more safe and reliable seat recliner during rear-end collisions; while also providing an opportunity to move beyond component level design, simulation and testing into full scale dynamic testing of an automotive seat. Experiments for determination of seat properties, required for the development and validation of an automotive sport seat model, have been performed. The objective of the thesis is to develop and validate a human back and buttocks model that is able to predict realistic seat pressure distributions at the contact interface between human and seat. The validation of the seat model is based on low velocity tests (quasi-static) using loading devices with human-like shapes and it proved the prediction ability of realistic responses in human seat interaction. Comparison of simulations with the test results indicates a reasonable correlate, establishing confidence in FE Methodology used during modeling. In future, further development of seat models should focus on the usage of improved finite element techniques for prediction of seat component deformations.