3rd Regional Conference on Noise, Vibration and Comfort (NVC ) 2010

28-30th June, 2010, Putrajaya, Malaysia

Editors: M. J. M. Nor et al.

VIBRATION TRANSMISSIBILITY OF VARIOUS SEAT OCCUPANTS’

BODY PARTS – A FIELD TEST

D.D.I Daruis1, M.J.M. Nor1 , B.M. Deros1, and M. Hosseini Fouladi2

1
Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering
Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
43600 UKM Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia
2
School of Engineering
Taylor's University College
47500 Subang Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia

ABSTRACT

Vibration transmissibility from seat to various parts of the body of a number of

seat occupants was investigated. The study was carried out in the field using a
Malaysian made compact car. Vibration from two types of road and three
different vehicle speeds for each road were studied. The effects of three head and
back conditions namely head and back supports, back and no head supports and
no head and no back supports, were also investigated. Eleven subjects
participated in the study. Measurement was done while subject was seated at the
front passenger seat. The various body parts measured were right thigh, under the
buttock, lumbar, upper back and head (in x-, y- and z-axes). Results show
agreement with previous literatures where the median primary resonances were
between 4-9 Hz. It was also shown that there were only slight differences with
the head and back condition variation except for x- and y-axes for head
transmissibility. For both lateral and fore-aft directions, there are large increases
of amplitudes when the head and back was not supported as compared to
supported back and head conditions. Although it was a field test, coherence
values were found to be high (median value of 0.8 to 0.9) for vertical
transmissibility however only moderate for fore-aft and horizontal
transmissibility (median value 0.7).

Keywords: seat transmissibility; seat vibration; seat; transmissibility; vibration.

M. J. M. Nor et al.

INTRODUCTION

Transmissibility measurement is a non-dimensional ratio of the response

amplitude of a seat system in steady-state forced vibration to the excitation
amplitude expressed as a function of the vibration frequency (Griffin 1990).
Measurements of transmissibility to other body parts other than seat-to-head
transmissibility have occasionally been reported: to the trunk and vertebrae (El-
Khatib et al. 1998), as well as thigh and arms (Nishiyama et al. 2000). El-Khatib
et al. (1998) found that above 4Hz, vertical seat-to-vertebrae transmissibility
increased and resonance at two different frequencies; 6.3Hz (transmissibility
factor 1.3) and 13.6Hz (transmissibility factor 0.9). As the authors expected,
inter-subject variability as shown by ANOVA was highly significant from 2.8-25
Hz (p<0.001). Below 2.8 Hz, differences were not significant up to 1.9 Hz (0.12
≤ p ≤ 0.33). The ANOVA for vertebral level at the lumbar showed no significant
difference for all subjects for all tested postures. It was also found that changing
posture did not affect results of the inter-subject variability (p≤0.1 or p<0.001 in
most cases at all frequencies).
Using fore-aft vibration as an input in laboratory set-up, Jalil & Griffin
(2007a) showed that the greatest fore-aft transmissibility on the backrest is at the
middle area of the backrest from five positions investigated. A further study on
the effect of backrest and seat pan inclination showed an increase of
transmissibility at resonance and the resonance frequency for back rest but little
effect on the seat pan (Jalil & Griffin 2007b). Recently, Nelisse et al. (2008)
studied two dynamic manikins for laboratory testing of seats under whole-body
vibration. It was shown that although it is highly repeatable and reliable, it
provided an overestimate of isolation effectiveness of seat when compared to
those with human subjects.
This study aims to identify the vibration characteristics transmitted to the
human in real vehicle conditions or field tests. As according to Stayner (2001),
what can be achieved in the laboratory and what can be measured in the field
have been dependant on the technology available. Although the laboratory could
give higher coherency however the correct vibration input spectra and the correct
subject posture can be obtained from the field test. In this study, accelerometers
were attached to the subjects using velcro straps at the right thigh, the lumbar
area, at the upper back (velcro straps past just nicely under arms) and at the
forehead as well as tri-axial accelerometer with pad under the buttock. Most
studies on transmissibility were for the seat-to-head transmissibility which
reported results in the frequency range from 1 to 25Hz with high vibration
magnitudes (≥ 1m/s2 ) (some are summarized in Griffin 1990). Various road
conditions include two types of road with three car speeds provide different
actual vibration magnitudes during driving for the study. Effects of different type
of head and backrest conditions were also investigated.

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Vibration Transmissibility of Various Seat Occupants’ Body Parts – A Field Test

METHODOLOGY

The vehicle used is a popular Malaysian made compact car. Subjects were seated
on the front passenger seat. The test were carried out on smooth and paved road
in Putrajaya, Malaysia. Speeds were constant at 20, 40 and 80 km/h for smooth
road and 20, 30 and 50 km/h for pave road. The same driver drove the car to
minimize variability of driving condition for each test while subject occupied the
front passenger seat. The seat-to-various body parts transmissibility was
measured from five locations. There were single axis accelerometers at the upper-
back, lower-back, seat-buttock interface and right thigh attached to Velcro straps.
There was also one each accelerometers for x-, y- and z-axis on the seat floor
beneath the subject. One unit of tri-axial accelerometer was attached to a head-
strap at the forehead area. Figure 1 and Figure 2 depict how the accelerometers
were affixed onto the subject and its various locations. The measurement devices
used were Bruel & Kjaer portable and multi-channel PULSE type 3560D and
Bruel & Kjaer isotron accelerometer model 751-100. The measurement software
was also Bruel & Kjaer Pulse Labshop. The accelerometers were calibrated using
the Bruel & Kjaer calibration exciter type 4294. The vibrations were recorded in
the bandwidth 0-40 Hz of about 0.06m/s2 weighted r.m.s. minimum to 0.5 m/s2
weighted r.m.s. maximum in three axes.

(b
(a)
)
FIGURE 1 (a) Subject seated in no backrest no headrest position during in vehicle
experiment, (b) the front passenger and driver seats without sitter.

FIGURE 2 A schematic drawing showing the positions of the accelerometers and photos
of accelerometers attached at the forehead, thigh and at the back (clockwise).

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M. J. M. Nor et al.

Subjects

There were 11 subjects participated as the seat occupants in the study. Subjects
anthropometrical details are given in Table 1. Measurement for each subject was
recorded in about 20 seconds each in various conditions as shown in Table 2.
Subjects’ permission was given in the form of letter of consents after they were
briefed prior to the test. Each test took about 1-2 hour to complete. The
recordings were usually carried out in between 9.30 a.m. to 11.00 a.m. to avoid
busy traffic.

TABLE 1 Anthropometry details of test subjects involved in the measurements

Category Mean weight (kg) Mean height (cm) No of. Subjects

Light 56.9±3.09 162.4±5.18 5
Heavy 68.5±3.73 168.8±4.17 6

TABLE 2 Test conditions for transmissibility measurement

Smooth
Paved road
Back condition road
(km/h)
(km/h)
Headrest and backrest (HB)
No headrest and backrest (NHB) 20 30 50 20 40 80
No headrest and no backrest (NHNB)

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

With the limited number of subjects, inter-variability of the subjects’ average

transmissibility values were statistically insignificant although there were two
groups of subject with heavy and light body mass (please refer Table 1). Figure 3
shows an example of the difference between median data of the heavy weight
group and the lighter weight group. In most cases, the medians of the heavier
group are slightly lower than the lighter group at around 20 Hz onwards. As
mentioned by Griffin (1990) and Griffin & Whitham (1978) observed similar
phenomenon in which increased weight resulted in decreased transmissibility
although the reported frequency was not exactly at 20 Hz but 16 Hz instead.
In terms of system linearity, the HB posture has more number of acceptable
coherency (value 0.7 or higher) than the other two postures. In all three postures,
only two accelerometers locations gave coherency value of 0.7 or higher, one was
at the head and the other was at the thigh (both are in z-direction). Measurement
at head for y-direction for all driving conditions for NHB and NHNB postures
has the lowest coherency, i.e. lower than 0.5. Table 3 shows the median peak
frequencies and transmissibility values of six speed and road conditions
according to accelerometers location and head and back condition.

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Vibration Transmissibility of Various Seat Occupants’ Body Parts – A Field Test

/m/s 2 )
4 Heavyberat
3 Subjek

Transmissibility (m/s2/m/s2)
subject

2
3

Transmissibility (m/s
2 Light ringan
Subjek
subject
2
1
1

0 0
1 6 11 16 21 26 31 36 1 6 11 16 21 26 31 36

Frequency (Hz) Frequency (Hz)

FIGURE 3 measurement of transmissibility at head in z-axis (left) and seat

pan in z-direction (right) according to subjects’ weight.

TABLE 3 Peak frequencies and transmissibility values at peak based on median

across six speed and road conditions

Location Measurement HB NHB NHNB

Peak frequency 4.00 5.00 5.00
Head x-axis
Transmissibility 6.26 2.83 4.21
Peak frequency 2.00 2.00 ≤1.00
Head y-axis
Transmissibility 6.75 5.78 5.83
Peak frequency 5.00 4.00 3.00
Head z-axis
Transmissibility 3.44 2.42 1.41
Peak frequency 4.00 8.00 8.00
Upper back
Transmissibility 1.18 1.86 1.17
Peak frequency 5.00 8.00 8.00
Lower back
Transmissibility 2.40 1.75 1.05
Peak frequency 12.00 12.00 4.00
Thigh
Transmissibility 2.08 1.94 1.75

Effect of speed and road conditions (vibration magnitude)

From the results, it was found out that peak frequencies were not significantly
affected by the vehicle’s speed and road conditions tested in this study. Median
data dispersions could be observed in all cases between 1-13Hz only. Only few
cases showed some significant differences between the different speeds. Among
others were NHB head x-axis and head z-axis with both data showed p-value
≤0.1 before its peak resonance frequencies (1-8Hz) (refer Figure 4). Another two
occurrences were for HB and NHNB lower back with p-values ≤0.1 as well.
Although data from Qiu and Griffin (2003) could show significant effects from
different magnitudes of vibration, those studies were carried out in the laboratory
where the magnitudes used were between 0.50 to 1.95 ms-2 r.m.s.. Whereas this
study were carried out in the field and the difference between one speed to
another either on the same road or not were not so obvious.

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 M. J. M. Nor et al.

10 Head X (HB) 10 Head X 12 Head X 20

(NHB) 10 (NHNB)
8 8 40
8
6 6 80
6
4 4 20p
4
2 2 2 30p
0 0 0 50p
1 6 11 16 21 26 31 36 1 6 11 16 21 26 31 36 1 6 11 16 21 26 31 36

15 15 8 20
Head Y
Transmissibility ms-2/ms-2

Head Y
(HB) Head Y 40
(NHB) 6
10 10 (NHNB)
80
4
20p
5 5
2 30p

0 0 0 50p
1 6 11 16 21 26 31 36 1 6 11 16 21 26 31 36 1 6 11 16 21 26 31 36

5 4 2 20
HeadZ HeadZ HeadZ
4 (HB) (NHB) (NHNB) 40
3
80
3
2 1 20p
2
30p
1 1
50p
0 0 0
1 5 9 13 17 21 25 29 33 37 1 5 9 13 17 21 25 29 33 37 1 5 9 13 17 21 25 29 33 37

Frequency (Hz)

FIGURE 4 Median transmissibilities for HB, NHB and NHNB at head-x, head-y
and head-z for every road conditions and speeds.

Effect of head and back conditions

According to Paddan & Griffin (1998), motions other than the z-direction are
vulnerable to the effects of noises (e.g., motions at the head due to voluntary
movements and not due to the seat vibration). The results showed that HB peak
frequency for fore-aft motion was lower than NHB and NHNB peak frequencies.
Meanwhile, HB vertical and lateral motions produced slightly higher peak
frequencies than NHB and NHNB motions of the same directions. Messenger and
Griffin (1989) found that, when sitting erect without a backrest, a reduction in
seat-to-head transmissibility at frequencies above 6Hz was associated with either
(i) posterior tilting of the pelvis, flattening the lumbar curve and inclining the
upper back forward, or (ii) anterior tilting of the pelvis and forward inclination of
the whole back. They concluded that ‘an anatomically correct sitting posture’
would tend to increase the transmission of vibration to the head at higher
frequencies but minimize transmissibility at low frequencies (Griffin 1990).

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Vibration Transmissibility of Various Seat Occupants’ Body Parts – A Field Test

Generally, HB transmissibility factor at peak resonance was higher than both

NHB and NHNB transmissibility factors for all measurement locations except at
the upper back. For lateral motions, the ratios between HB, NHB and NHNB
transmissibility factors at peak resonances were 6:3:4 for head-x and 2:2:1 for
lower back. For upper back, the transmissibility factor at peak resonance ratios
for NHB to HB and NHNB was 2:1. For head-z, the transmissibility factor ratio
at peak resonance was around 3:2:1 for HB, NHB and NHNB. However, for
thigh, there was not much transmissibility factor difference at the peak
resonances between the three postures.
Paddan and Griffin (1988a) in Griffin (1990) found that contact with the
backrest reduced inter-subject variability in transmissibility but increased the
transmission of vibration, especially to the fore-and-aft, vertical and pitch axes of
the head in the range 5-10Hz. Backrests tend to increase the transmission of
vertical vibration from a seat to the head, partly because of their effect on body
posture. It is worst if the seat back has a resonance which can be excited by the
vibration (Griffin 1990). As a seat is reclined, the x-axis of the body receives a
component from the vertical vibration. An inclination of only 20o will present
34% of its vertical motion in the x-axis of the subject.

CONCLUSIONS

From the study, it is shown that among the six locations, seat-to-head-x
transmissibility was the highest. The peak frequencies for all six locations were
between 0-12Hz. However, for field test only vertical directions variables proved
to be excellent linear system which showed high value of coherency (0.7
onwards). Vibration magnitudes as a result of six speeds on two types of road
conditions did not revealed any significant differences in peak frequencies. For
both lateral and fore aft directions, there were large increases of amplitude when
the head and back was not supported as compared to supported back and head
conditions.

REFERENCES

El-Khatib, A., Guillon, F. & Domont, A. 1998. Vertical vibration transmission

through the lumbar spine of the seated subject - first results. Journal of
Sound and Vibration. 215 (4):763-773.

Griffin, M.J. 1990. Handbook of human vibration. London: Elsevier Academic

Press.

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M. J. M. Nor et al.

Jalil, N.A.A. & Griffin, M.J. 2007a. Fore-and-aft transmissibility of backrests:

effect of backrest inclination, seat-pan inclination, and measurement
location. Journal of sound and vibration 299:99-108.

Jalil, N.A.A. & Griffin, M.J. 2007b. Fore-and-aft transmissibility of backrests:

variation with height above the seat surface and non-linearity. Journal of
sound and vibration 299:109-122.

Messenger, A.J. & Griffin, M.J. 1989. Effects of anthropometric and postural
variables on the transmission of whole-body vertical vibration from seat-
to-head. Southampton: Institute of Sound and Vibration Research,
University of Southampton

Nelisse, H., Patra, S., Rakheja, S., Boutin, J. & Boileau, P.-E. 2008. Assesments
of two dynamic manikins for laboratory testing of seats under whole-
body vibration. International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics. 38:457-
470.

Nishiyama, S., Uesegi, N., Takeshima, T., Kano, Y. & Togii, H. 2000. Research
on vibration characteristics between human body and seat, steering wheel,
and pedals (effect of seat positionon ride comfort). Journal of sound and
vibration 236 (1):1-21.

Paddan, G.S. & Griffin, M.J. 1998. A review of the transmission of translational
seat vibration to the head. Journal of Sound and Vibration. 215 (4):863-
882.

Qiu, Y. & Griffin, M.J. 2003. Transmission of fore-aft vibration to a car seat
using field tests and laboratory simulation. Journal of Sound and
Vibration. 264:135-155.

Stayner, R.M. 2001. Whole-body vibration and shock: a literature review

extension of a study of overtravel of seat suspensions. UK: HSE Books.