Citation

Richards LG, Jacobson ID, Pepler RD. Transp. Res. Rec. 1980; 774: 39-45.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1980, Transportation Research Board, National Research Council, National Academy of Sciences USA, Publisher SAGE Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This research was undertaken to develop comfort (ride-quality) models for six specific vehicles and to refine an existing composite ride-quality model. The vehicles were an automated guideway transit vehicle, a short-haul intercity rail vehicle, an urban rapid rail vehicle, a luxury-type charter bus, a compact car, and a subcompact automobile. Experiments on most vehicles were conducted in two phases: model development and model validation. In both phases, physical variables were measured for a series of ride segments, and each segment was rated for comfort level by a group of paid subjects. The important determinants of comfort for most vehicles were roll, pitch, and vertical acceleration. These variables are highly intercorrelated; all load on the same principal component of the motion-correlation matrix. Two composite ride-quality models are presented; one has four variables (roll, pitch, and vertical and longitudinal acceleration) and one has two variables (vertical acceleration and roll). The two-variable comfort model is sufficient for most uses.