Effect of different seat angles on human subject while travelling by bus on Indian road conditions

Abstract

Passenger seats are the most commonly used seats in the buses to provide comfort to the passengers during traveling from one place to another. During traveling by the road, the human body is subjected to vibrations that can be generated from so many sources such as wheel unbalances, road profiles, transmission, and auxiliary systems, aerodynamic loads and engines, etc. The generated vibrations are further transmitted to humans through the seat base and floor of the bus and cause discomfort. In this work, a FEM study was performed to investigate the effect of different seat backrest angles on the human subject during traveling on the passenger seats in the bus on Indian road conditions. A 3D CAD model of the human subject developed for the current study and also passenger seat with headrest has been modeled using reverse engineering with cushion material as synthetic rubber foam for seat pan and backrest. The current simulation study concludes that the minimum effect of transmissibility has been observed at 21° seat backrest angle.