Experimental and numerical investigation of pressure deformation of human body for constructing digital elastic body model: waist–abdomen part

Virtual simulation technology is a powerful tool for intelligent design and manufacturing in modern clothing industry. However, the digital human body in the current clothing simulation system is typically a rigid model, which fails to accurately reflect the pressure deformation of human body, often presenting significantly greater value than actual pressure. This limitation hinders accurate clothing simulation. To address this issue, we focused on exploring the mechanism of body pressure deformation and developing a digital elastic human body model. We selected the human waist–abdomen part as the object and measured its pressure deformation using 3D scanning technology. We then constructed an elastic 3D layered finite element model of the human waist–abdomen part to simulate the pressure deformation and compared with the experimental investigation under various conditions. The pressure distribution, circumference change and volume change of body segments in both real body and virtual elastic body model were measured to ascertain the pressure deformation pattern of the waist–abdomen part. The results demonstrated that the proposed elastic human body model accurately simulates the deformation of the human body under different pressures. The proposed modeling method is effective for constructing a digital elastic human body model, enhancing the accuracy of pressure prediction and clothing simulation.