Citation

Kubo M, Terauchi F, Aoki H, Matsuoka Y. Int. J. Ind. Ergonomics 2001; 27(4): 219-232.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2001, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

We aimed to develop a synthetic vibration model reproducing the relations between the physical, psychological and physiological reactions of the human body exposed to external vibrations. The synthetic vibration model consisted of a mechanical vibration model simulating the physical behaviour of the human body and multiple regression equations describing the above three relations. The mechanical vibration models formalised according to Lagrange's equation of motion were employed. The experiment was carried out under conditions in which five people were exposed to external vibration that vertically vibrates at various frequencies. As a result, it was clear that there were resonance points showing remarkable shaking of the head, the chest and the abdomen in the frequency range 2-11 Hz. Moreover, it was indicated that the relations between the physical reactions and the resulting psychological and physiological reactions might be expressed in terms of multiple regression analysis. Finally, the simple vibration model of a person riding in an automobile was numerically constructed to reproduce the physical reactions of the human body, and then the psychological and physiological reactions were predicted.Relevance to industryThe synthetic vibration model could facilitate comfort design in the field of industrial design in general and the automotive industry in particular. Using the vibration model in industrial fields will enable us to efficiently develop various products, whose design will take into consideration of human comfort.