Wn. Patten et al., A VIBRATION MODEL OF OPEN CELLED POLYURETHANE FOAM AUTOMOTIVE SEAT CUSHIONS, Journal of sound and vibration, 217(1), 1998, pp. 145-161
A mechanistic model of a seat cushion is developed. The work relates t
he kinematic motion of the seat to the geometric and constitutive prop
erties of the cellular foam used in the seat. The model includes the i
nfluence of pneumatic damping caused by friction between the gas withi
n the open-celled foam and matrix polymer. A continuous shape function
is introduced to characterize the piecewise continuous stress-strain
characteristic of flexible open-celled foam. After some simplification
, a non-linear dynamic automotive seat cushion model is derived, which
relies explicitly on the constitutive properties of polyurethane foam
s and on the geometry of the seat cushion. Experimental and analytical
models of the two automotive seats are compared to verify the model.
The comparisons indicate that the new model is able to predict the dyn
amic performance of an automotive seat cushion with fidelity. (C) 1998
Academic Press.