Technical note: Spine loading in automotive seating
article
For car manufacturers, seat comfort is becoming more important in distinguishing themselves from their competitors. Therefore, many studies on participative seat comfort are carried out. In this paper, an objective assessment approach is reported which evaluates the concept of "optimal load distribution", based on the identification of a close relationship between the pressure on the seat and the discomfort felt by the person sitting. An in vivo measurement of the pressure in the spinal disc, which is an indicator of the load in the spine, was performed. For this research, a pressure sensor was implanted with a canula in the middle of the disc intervertebralis of a participant. The local pressure on the disc was established for the participant in an automobile seat set in various seat positions. The results indicate that in the seat position with the pressure distribution corresponding to the most comfortable posture the pressure in the intervertebral disc is lowest. The pressure in this position is 0.5. bar, while in the upright seated position the pressure is 1.6. bar. © 2011 Elsevier Ltd and The Ergonomics Society.
Topics
Automatic seat comfort adjustmentComfortIntelligent car seatSpine load measurementAutomatic seat comfort adjustmentCar manufacturersComfortIn-vivo measurementIntelligent car seatIntervertebral discsLoad distributionsLoad measurementsObjective assessmentSeat positionSpinal discSpine loadingTechnical notesAutomobile manufacturearticleautomotive seatingbiomechanicsbody posturecompressiondecompressionequipment designintervertebral disklumbar spinemechanical stresspressurepressure distributionseatsitting
TNO Identifier
442920
ISSN
0003-6870
Source
Applied Ergonomics, 43(2), pp. 290-295.
Pages
290-295
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