Seat Vibration Simulator for Ride Comfort Evaluation

Abstract

Ride comfort is one of the aspects of vehicles that manufacturers are constantly trying to improve, and seat vibration is an important contributing factor to ride comfort. The present study developed a seat vibration simulator for investigating the human perception of seat vibration and its application on ride comfort evaluation. The simulator was delivered as a fully functional system. The design requirements of the simulator were defined based on the review of proving ground measurements and previous studies. It concluded that the operating frequency range was 10-80Hz with excitation applied in both longitudinal and vertical directions. A compact and cost-effective design was proposed featuring a modular floating vibration platform and compact electrodynamics actuators. The Time Waveform Replication (TWR) process was implemented as the control strategy of the simulator and yielded good accuracy for tracking the target stimuli within the frequency range of 6-80Hz. The second part of the present study discussed the application of the seat vibration simulator. An experimental measurement method was proposed and validated for measuring the difference threshold of human perception of seat vibration, including the spectrum baseline method for generating reference stimulus from proving ground measurements, the modified A-AFC protocol for reducing the experiment duration, and the software for the fully automated experiment. The proposal also included the potential application of the difference threshold as a new ride comfort indicator.Mechanical Engineering | Vehicle Engineering | Cognitive Robotic