Vehicle Seat Structure Optimization in Front and Rear Impact

ABSTRACT

Seat is one of the important parameters for occupant safety during an impact. The occupant injury characteristics are vital for better seat development. For improving occupant safety during impact, the research on the seat structure optimization in front and rear impact was conducted in this paper. Dummy-seat finite element simulation model was established and analyzed by using HyperMesh and LS-DYNA software. The model was verified with test data before further application. Then, the model was simulated to determine its performance on the head, chest and neck injury of the dummy in the frontal and rear impact. The simulation results showed that the original model cannot provide effective protection according to CNCAP regulation. Thus, modification should be carried out. On the basis of previous study, seat side plate, lower bracket under cushion, and back lock member were modified by implementing orthogonal experiment design method to determine the best option. The optimized solution A₄B₂C₂ was gained through range analysis and integrated balance method. After simulation, chest compression reduced 17.21%, 3ms resultant acceleration reduced 21.16%, dummy neck FX decreased 15.44%, MZ value decreased 3.13%, and backrest angle decreased 46.1%. It was indicated that the optimized structure can improve passenger protection. It was illustrated that the model based method combining HyperMesh and LSDYNA was an effective way for seat development and for conducting occupant injury study.

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