Suggestion for evaluation methods of ride comfort at low frequencies

Abstract

In the development stage of manufacturing automobiles, ride comfort performance is as important as driving performance. Evaluation methods treat many single direction vibrations. But when a car is running, the driver is exposed to a compound vibration. Therefore, a method that evaluates the riding comfort of compound vibration becomes important. In this paper, a method was constructed that evaluated the riding comfort of the coupled vibration. The vibration exciter used in this study consists of two hydraulic actuators. The subjects were exposed to the following: acceleration vector summation, vibration with a different frequency, phase difference, and the amplitude ratio in the low frequency band. The vibrational input to the subjects was vertical-anteroposterior and vertical-horizontal at an intended frequency from 1 to 3.5 Hz. When the frequency and the amplitude ratio increase, the discomfort increases. Additionally, when the vector summation increases, discomfort increase. ©2010 Society for Experimental Mechanics Inc.