RDM: Modeling the support on a foam

Hi all

I am taking the liberty of contacting you because I have to do a study of a part leaning on a car seat cushion.

I would like to simulate this support via an elastic support type constraint. The problem is that I am asked for a normal and shear stiffness in (N/m)/m² and I have no idea which values to use.

No matter how much I look on the net for information on car seat foams, these values are never indicated. At best, I can only find a density of about 50-60 kg/m3.

Does anyone have any values to simulate the elastic support of a seat foam?

Thanks in advance

Subject that interests me because I have done research for seat foam, and, the data is on shore. I couldn't find the correspondence between a 40 shore foam and the kg/m3

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Do you understand German?

http://eassistant.nmmn.com/de/AppletHardness.html

 

went one last one on the hardness of the materials 

http://www.calce.umd.edu/TSFA/Hardness_ad_.htm

 

Thank you for your answers but the hardness of the foams doesn't help me much.

I'm looking for stiffness values of the foam according to its compression. 

Basically the stress-sinking diagram of a foam (compression).

Hello

It doesn't surprise me too much that you can't find anything on the net because it must vary a lot depending on the car. A large sedan should be more flexible than a sports coupe.

To try to move the subject forward, I will say that if the foam compacts 10 mm under the weight of a 70 kg passenger, it gives you a stiffness of 700N/0.01m = 70,000 N/m

For shear stiffness you can try the same reasoning but in the case of a car seat, the slip on the cover is quickly more penalizing than the deformation of the foam.

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Thank you for your answer.

For my part, I continue my research because, in the case of foams, stiffness is not a constant and is subject to the following variables:

- Sinking speed: the apparent modulus of elasticity increase according to the rate of deformation

-Temperature: stiffness increases as the temperature drops

-the depth of sinking: There is first an increase in stiffness during crushing then a plateau and an exponential increase when the cells/cells of the foam are crushed and it is pure compression.

In my case, I am not trying to do a dynamic study but a static study, constant temperature, and without taking into account impact kinetics. So I would need a compression curve of a seat foam.

However, because I don't have this value (if you have any, I'm a taker) I looked at the fact that foams have a characteristic called lift. The latter corresponds to the force in  kPa  needed to drive a foam 40% thick

Lift corresponds to the hardness of the foam. Lift is related to density, because for a given density there is a possible lift ceiling. 

A 35kg/m3 foam, for example, can have several different load-bearing capacities ranging from 2.5 kpa to 4 kpa for a seat. 

For your information I found a seat cushion with a lift of 80 kg/m² with a thickness of 6.5-1 cm

What makes with your formula, if we take the average thickness of this cushion (3.75 mm) a stiffness of:

                         Bearing capacity 80 kg/m² or 784.5 N/m²

                         Average depth 3.75 cm or 0.0375 m

                         Stiffness: lift/sinking: 20928 N/m/m²

For lack of anything better, I'll try a first calculation with this value;)

I take the liberty of leaving this message in order to inform you that if I have not closed this question yet, it is voluntary.

For my part, I expect additional information on the subject next week.

So I'm leaving this question hanging for a few more days in the hope of having relevant data and sharing it with the community.

I am sorry for the time before answering and closing this question but I have kept hoping to have relevant data but in vain.

Thanks anyway to those who tried to help me

I am sorry for the time before answering and closing this question but I have kept hoping to have relevant data but in vain.

Thanks anyway to those who tried to help me