Endergonic property analysis of vehicle seat pillow under heads crash loads

Abstract

Traffic accidents cause to a large quantity of personnel casualty and economic loss every year. The safety in vehicle crash has been one of important criterions in vehicle design. The driver seat pillow can provide a protection to human heads and cervical spines during automobile crash process, and the pillow-related structural design of vehicle seats is one part in the driver seat design of modern exclusive cars. In this study, according the relevant design statute requirements of driver seats, the three-dimensional finite element model of a simplified human head and a seat with pillow was established and then simulations were conducted for simulating the process of the human head crashing the seat pillow in both of front direction and rearward direction. The results show that the pillow board and the pillow bracket are the main endergonic components during the front crashing process and the pillow bracket is the main endergonic component during rearward crashing process. The results also show that the crash protection structure of seat pillow is satisfied with the relevant requirements and this study can provide a reference for structural design of driver seat pillows.