The premise of this work is to address aircraft seat comfort. This thesis presents the development of an automatic morphing backrest used to reduce pressure experienced by the passenger from the seat. Uncomfortable, high surface pressure zones on the backrest can be alleviated by decentralizing the occupant’s weight. The improved pressure distribution is intended to decrease discomfort during flight while taking different comfort/discomfort models into consideration.
Pressure distribution data from the embedded sensor mat is used to compute the seat’s cushion deflection and corresponding backrest contour caused by the passenger’s weight. The surfaces of interest - the passenger’s back and the seat, are modelled and discretized. The discretized surface contact pressure is integrated into the hyperelastic contact model to determine the loading profile. From this, the current pressure distribution and the cushion’s surface change are computed and used in the control system to create the corresponding actuation of the surface.
Effect of foot load changes on foot arch evaluation using foot pressure distribution data