Dynamic Comfort Testing of Automotive Seats in a Laboratory Setting

The goal of this study was to use three identical looking automotive seats with different foam formulations (different stiffness, similar hysteresis) to determine whether there were differences in WBV exposures and self-reported comfort ratings across the three seats (Seat A, B, and C). Ten participants (5 male; 5 female) were recruited for this repeated-measures laboratory study. The seats were mounted on a 6 degree-of-freedom (DOF) vibrating platform on which the participants were exposed to sinusoidal vertical (Z-axis) and field-measured, tri-axial car floor vibration profiles. The participants ranked their seat preference before and after using all three seats. Self-reported seat comfort was evaluated using 7-point Likert scales at the end of each seat test. Results indicated that the least stiff seat C had the lowest resonance frequency and the lowest WBV magnitudes across all road types. Seat C was also the most preferred among the participants. This study indicates that it may be possible to improve both vibrational performance and comfort by altering foam mechanical properties through different formulations.