Human body modeling for virtual seat comfort testing

Abstract

In order to improve the biofidelity of a finite element human body model, previously introduced as PAM-Comfort model, the modeling of lumbar spine, buttock and trunk back flesh and abdominal part have been updated. The modeling of the lumbar spine has been improved for its mechanical characteristics of articulation. The modeling of abdominal part has been switched with solid mesh from the air-bag with membrane elements to enhance the mass distribution feature of the model. The mesh quality of buttock and trunk back flesh became finer for a more accurate prediction of seating pressure distribution. The new features of the model were verified by the experimental data with human subjects. Copyright © 2006 SAE International.