Chair Analysis and Simulation Using ANSYS

Jessica Song
JSJ Corporation
Abstract:
American National Standard for Office Furnishings-General-Purpose Office Chairs-Tests were set forth by
the Business & Institutional Furniture Manufacturers Association (BIFMA). ANSYS is employed to
simulate the BIFMA tests to detect any potential problem and provide insight into the behavior of the chair
and optimize the design to meet the regulation requirements.
Introduction:
ANSI/BIFMA X5.1-1993 and X5.4-1997 are test standards for office chairs and lounge seating. They
include such as Test 19 Leg strength test Front application, Test 20 Leg strength test Side
application, Test 7- Back strength test, Test 8 Base test, Test 9 Drop test and so on about 20 kinds of
test. Finite Element Analysis FEA is a powerful tool to simulate the tests before the prototypes will be
made. The main objectives of this analysis are to simulate the BIFMA test analysis, detect any potential
problem and provide insight into the behavior of the chair and initial design guidance to improve the
performance.
Modeling:
The model contains all the structural components that usually undergo deformation during the actual tests.
Middle surfaces for the tubes were generated for shell elements with the thickness. The model is shown in
Figure 1. The average element size is 0.3-0.5 in.

Figure 1 - Chair FEA Model
Materials:
The properties of steel are used as standard for all the tube parts made of steel. The material properties of
the seat and back are polypropylene. The properties of seat, back, rods and tubes are listed in Table 1.
Components Youngs Modulus
(psi)
Poissons ratio
Frame tubes 30,000,000 0.27
Seat rods 30,000,000 0.27
Seat & back 600,000 0.35
Interfaces:
A surface to surface contact (contact 170 and contact 174) is used for all contacts.
Analysis Results & Discussion
The loading and boundary conditions outlined in ANSI/BIFMA X5.1-1993 were used for the five tests. The
goal of the initial analysis was to obtain the performances of the chair in the five test simulations.

The analysis for each test started with a baseline model: a model which legs thickness are the same as line
data provided. The baseline model was used to get an understanding of what is actually happening to the
chair during the tests. Maximum Von Mises stress is used to understand the mode and events of the
deformation. We want to keep the Maximum Von Mises stress below the material strength.
The next step in the analysis was to vary the thickness of front and rear legs. This approach included a
series of simulation. The results for theseanalysis are summarized in Table 2 and 3. The thickness of the
legs is kept between 0.06 to 0.225 in. It should be noted that there are minor changes in the maximum stress
of the chair with the leg thickness changes. The existing design concepts does not allow some drastic
changes in the structure.
Table 2. Summary of Results for Test 19.
FW .16' FW .18 FW .2' FW .215' FW.225
Test
Loading
lbf Value RW .16' RW .16' RW .16' RW .16'

RW.16
19 75 DMX in 1.871 N/A N/A N/A N/A
19 75 SMX psi 32158 N/A N/A N/A N/A
19 125 DMX in 3.118 2.89 2.706 2.589 2.518
19 125 SMX psi 53596 48236 43861 41057 39368

Table 2. Summary of Results for Test 20.
FW .125' FW .125 FW .15' FW .16' FW.15 FW.15 FW.16
Test
Loading
lbf Value RW .06' RW .09' RW .06' RW .06'

RW.125

RW.15

RW.16
20 75 front DMX in 2.405 N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
20 SMX psi 32354 N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
20 75 rear DMX in 2.177 1.63 N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
20 SMX psi 66911 44592 N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
20 115 front DMX in 3.687 3.426 3.19 3.031 N/A N/A N/A
20 SMX psi 49609 49705 41692 39208 N/A N/A N/A
20 115 rear DMX in N/A N/A N/A N/A 1.93 1.69 1.603
20 SMX psi N/A N/A N/A N/A 50186 42359 39908
DMX : Max displacement.
SMX : Max Von Mises stress.
FW: front leg wall thickness.
RW: rear leg wall thickness.
The real test for BIFMA 20 leg strength test-Side application with applied load on front leg shows that
functional load 75lbf passed and proof load 115lbf failed. The simulation results agree very well with the
real test. See Figure 2. The simulation max Von Mises stress is 32354psi below the yield value 40000psi.
From Table 3, the max Von Mises stress for proof load 115lbf is 49609pis which is over the material yield
value.

Figure 2. Von Mises stress for Test 20 with 75lbf on front leg.


Figure 3 and 4 give back stress levels for BIFMA test 7 back strength test. Max Von Mises stresses are
below material yield value 6000psi under both functional load 150lbf and proof load 250lbf. These are the
same as real test results.

Figure 3 Von Mises stress for Test 7 back strength test with 150lbf.

Figure 4 - Von Mises stress for Test 7 back strength test with 250lbf.

Conclusion
Although varying thickness of the legs have been used and analyzed for reducing the maximum stress,
some high values suggest some major design changes in the structure. Since those major changes are
basically approved by the designer, it is important to establish some new design guideline at this stage of
the project.
References
1) Kenneth G. Budinski, Michadl K. Budinsk, Engineering Materials, Prentice Hall 2001, Upper
Saddle River, New Jersey, Columbus, Ohio
2) ANSYS Structural Analysis Guide, Release 5.7, 2001, ANSYS, Inc. Canonsburg, PA