Investigation of a Vibration Reduction System for Vehicle Seats by a Vibration Model Consisting of a Vehicle, Seat, and Human Body

Abstract

This paper describes a vibration reduction system that can minimize the vertical vibrations of the human body in a vehicle. This system can control the mechanical properties of the seat cushions, such as the spring constants and damping coefficients. To examine the feasibility of this vibration reduction system, we design a vibration model of both an occupant–seat–steering wheel–pedals–vehicle system and a calculation system. Further, we carry out a numerical analysis to calculate the magnitude of vibrations transmitted from the road surface to the human body based on ISO7096-EM6. Comparison results of the frequency response between the analysis and the experiment indicate the feasibilities of both the vibration model and the analysis method. Furthermore, vibration of the head was reduced 60.1% by controlling the mechanical properties of the seat from 1/5 to 5 times. In summary, the in-vehicle vibration reduction system successfully reduces vibrations from the seat to the human body.