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Body pressure distribution on the seat is simply the measurement and visual reporting of pressure between the human body and the supporting surface of the seat. The main objective of this paper is to correlate the body pressure distribution to simulation at the same time to raise awareness of several different human seating postures during BPD measurement that has an influence on the pressure map reading as well as the correlation of the physical pressure distribution map to the virtually measured pressure map reading. A common issue is sometimes a different BPD map is captured even if the same person sits on the same seat. This paper will discuss in detail the influence of these seating postures during BPD measurement with the help of a virtual comfort analysis tool and physical testing.

As automotive seating comfort is expected to see an upward trend, virtual comfort analysis is expected to pick up its importance and Body Pressure Distribution (BPD) is foreseen to be the flag bearer in this race towards seat comfort. The shift of focus from BPD testing to virtual comfort analysis has been a positive sign for market. This paper will discuss in detail several different human seating postures during BPD measurement and their influence on seat BPD with the help of virtual comfort analysis tool. This knowledge will be helpful to put more emphasis on several key aspects for capturing BPD maps during real BPD testing (This paper does not discuss any physical testing). When the real-time-tested BPD map would be produced repeatedly with less variation with the analytical BPD map, a comfortable seat design would be achieved in a shorter period in terms of production with greater accuracy

Body Pressure Distribution (BPD) plot plays a vital role during designing the seating system. The seating system provides support and comfort to the occupants while they are operating the vehicle. The traditional way to produce Body Pressure Distribution (BPD) plot for a seating system is to use actual human subject with pressure sensor mat. But this is only possible when the seat has been manufactured. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the capability of CAE analytical tool to find the BPD plot at the early phase of the seating system design. Computer-aided engineering (CAE) uses many different computer software to aid engineering analysis tasks by using finite element analysis (FEA) which is a numerical method for solving problems of engineering and mathematical physics. BPD plot created by using SAE standard manikin is not very realistic as that dummy back and butt is not deformable compared to human manikin dummy.

Position of the H-point plays a vital role during designing the seating system. The seating system provides support and comfort to the occupants while they are operating the vehicle. The traditional way to design a seat system is to use rules of thumb and experience, which often results in several costly design iterations. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the capability of CAE analytical tool to find the H-point at the early phase of the seating system design without compromising the comfort level of the occupant. The recently launched Lincoln Continental front seating system was used to validate this purpose. The Continental seating system has unique design features which provide special challenges in designing and simulating the seat. With the help of CAE analytical tool, the traditional process is streamlined and a seat design could be achieved in a shorter period with greater accuracy.