Relation between Seat Shape and Sitting Comfort Evaluation on Car Driver's Seat.

Abstract

As there is presently no consensus as to how to design the comfortable seats of the automobile, it is important to relate the subjective words of judgment for sitting comfort of seats to the objective measurement of seats.The sitting comfort of automotive seats, whose shapes were changed, were evaluated by only human tactual sensation while sitting on these seats. The adjectives used for the sensory evaluation by the human tactile sensation were examined by factor analysis. From this result, three adjectives “high-class”, “sporty”, and “smooth” were common and significant in evaluating the seat comfort.It has been already reported that the top coated fabric was not related to the adjective “sporty”. But, it was found that the shape of seat was related to both “high-class” and “sporty” in this paper.Further, the correlation among sensory values of seat comfort, the physical properties relating to the shape of seat, and the pressure distribution was investigated by correlation analysis. From the result of correlation analysis, it was found that adjectives “sporty” and “high-class” were correlated with the cushion angle, the compressive properties of seats, and the body pressure distribution between the back-rest of seat and the human back.