Development of a finite element head model for contact pressure study of N95 Respirator

Abstract

The research on the comfort design of head-worn products using Chinese head and face anthropometric survey is of great importance for this country with the largest population in the world. In this study, a three-dimensional finite element head model was established by using the statistics of facial soft tissue thickness (FSTT) data obtained from the high-precision CT images of 1174 Chinese subjects. The headform was divided into multiple facial regions and composed by four layers including the skin, muscle, fat, and bone to achieve more realistic characterization of soft- and hard-tissue facial anthropometry in three dimensions. This paper presents a combined experimental and computational study on simulation of the contact pressure between an N95 filtering facepiece respirator (FFR) and the 3D Chinese reference headform. The finite element model (FEM) was validated by offline experiments using force sensing resistors (FSR) sensors. The FEM can be utilized for digital ergonomic assessments and help designers predict and evaluate comfort for more human-centered designs of head-mounted products.

Keywords: digital headform, finite element analysis, fit and comfort

DOI: 10.54941/ahfe1001925