Assessment of ride comfort of passengers based on whole body vibration

Abstract

Today the ride comfort plays an important role in the vehicle design as well as in vehicle judgment. There, the whole-body vibration transmission influences on comfort, performance and health condition of the passengers. However, in present, passengers have to spend a considerable amount of time for travelling without doing any precious thing. It means they waste their valuable time for travelling. A part due to long travel, passengers may have to face for some health issues such as fatigue, back injuries, vomiting etc. Objectives of this study are to investigate an impartial frequency range which will enhance the ride comfort of the passengers and to develop a relationship between whole body vibration and ride comfort. A variety of road types were selected. By using six channel vibration meter (SVANTEK 106) which was calibrated according to ISO 2631-1, 2 and 5, whole body vibration at 3 axes (fore-and-aft, vertical and lateral) was measured while passengers are performing reading and typing tasks. It was found that there is a significant effect of vibration on both reading and typing speeds of passengers. Whole body vibration exposure in fore and aft direction was found to be greatest for body vibration and are significantly correlated with reading and typing speeds.