Passenger Seat Research Articles

Passenger Noise and Whole-Body Vibration Exposure—A Comparative Field Study of Commercial Buses

The goal of this paper was to evaluate bus passengers' comfort with regard to noise and whole-body vibration. All types of existing buses used in Tehran urban services were considered for study. The measured noise levels in all buses were higher than the recommendations in W.H.O (1999) as well as Iran Department of Environment (2001), while the vibrations at the passenger seats were non uncomfortable vibrations according to ISO 2631-1-1997. In addition, the results demonstrated that the age and type of bus can play important roles in determining noise and vibration inside buses. It was concluded that the engine and wheels of bus can be considered as the major sources of noise and vibration inside buses.

Passenger Seat Vibration Control of Quarter Car System with MR Shock Absorber

Semi-active Fuzzy control of quarter car system having three degrees of freedom and assembled with magneto- rheological (MR) shock absorber is studied in present paper. First, experimental work was performed on an MR shock absorber under different excitation conditions to obtain force-displacement and force-velocity curves. Then, for the application of experimental data in semi-active quarter car system, a polynomial model was selected. Finally, Fuzzy logic controller was designed having the combination of Forward fuzzy controller and Inverse fuzzy controller for integration in secondary suspension system of concerned model. The proposed controlled quarter car model was compared with uncontrolled system using simulation work under bump type of road excitation. Results obtained by simulation work shows the effectiveness of fuzzy controlled suspension system in improving the ride comfort and safety of travelling passengers compared to uncontrolled suspension system. Keywords—MR shock absorber, three degrees of freedom, quarter car model, fuzzy controller.

Passenger Seat Vibration Control of Quarter Car System with MR Shock Absorber

Passenger Seat Vibration Control of Quarter Car System with MR Shock Absorber

Seat inventory control methods for Chinese passenger railways

Railway seat inventory control strategies play a crucial role in the growth of profit and train load factor. The railway passenger seat inventory control problem in China was addressed. Chinese passenger railway operation features and seat inventory control practice were analyzed firstly. A dynamic demand forecasting method was introduced to forecast the coming demand in a ticket booking period. By clustering, passengers’ historical ticket bookings were used to forecast the demand to come in a ticket booking period with least squares support vector machine. Three seat inventory control methods: non-nested booking limits, nested booking limits and bid-price control, were modeled under a single-fare class. Different seat inventory control methods were compared with the same demand based on ticket booking data of Train T15 from Beijing West to Guangzhou. The result shows that the dynamic non-nested booking limits control method performs the best, which gives railway operators evidence to adjust the remaining capacity in a ticket booking period.

Comparison of the THOR and Hybrid III Responses in Oblique Impacts

NHTSA has been investigating a new test mode in which a research moving deformable barrier (RMDB) impacts a stationary vehicle at 90.1 kph, a 15 degree angle, and a 35% vehicle overlap. The test utilizes the THOR NT with modification kit (THOR) dummy positioned in both the driver and passenger seats. This paper compares the behavior of the THOR and Hybrid III dummies during this oblique research test mode. A series of four full vehicle oblique impact crash tests were performed. Two tests were equipped with THOR dummies and two tests were equipped with Hybrid III dummies. All dummies represent 50th percentile males and were positioned in the vehicle according to the FMVSS208 procedure. The Hybrid III dummies were instrumented with the Nine Accelerometer Package (NAP) to calculate brain injury criteria (BrIC) as well as THOR-Lx lower legs. Injury responses were recorded for each dummy during the event. High speed cameras were used to capture vehicle and dummy kinematics. The vehicle restraint devices and their associated deployment times remained the same for each test. Post test analysis investigated each dummy injury response, kinematics, and vehicle structural performance. The results of the current study show that during an oblique impact, where significant lateral motion of the vehicle is observed, there are differences between the THOR and Hybrid III dummies. Language: en

Unstable Less Common Chance Fracture

A 25-year-old boy presented to the emergency room with multiple trauma after a car crash in which the car had collided with a guardrail. The patient had been in the front passenger seat, wearing a seatbelt. At presentation, he was awake and complaining only of back pain. On examination, his vital signs were stable. He had tenderness over the vertebrae and a contusion where the seatbelt had been positioned over his trunk. His lungs were clear to auscultation bilaterally, and he had no respiratory distress. His heart sounds were normal, without a murmur or gallop. He had no tenderness over the sternum. His abdomen was soft to the touch with no abnormal findings. Cranial nerves were intact. Muscle strength was 5/5 for all limbs. Deep tendon reflexes (DTRs) were 2+. The patient did not have any motor or sensory deficits on neurological exam. Due to his crash injury, focused assessment with sonography in trauma (FAST) was performed in the emergency room, and there were no abnormal findings. A brain computed tomography (CT) scan was performed, and the results were normal. Lateral neck radiography showed no abnormal findings. Due to his pain, the tenderness over the vertebrae, and the contusion over his trunk, a vertebral plain radiograph was obtained (Figure 1). Based on the plain radiography findings, a vertebral CT scan was performed (Figure 2). Figure 1 Figure 2 DIAGNOSIS: Chance Fracture A chance fracture, a type of fracture caused by a flexion distraction mechanism,[1] was identified. Missing chance fractures in a multiple trauma patient can cause future complications, such as kyphosis or pain. [2] Chance fractures are typically caused by seatbelts during car crashes.[1] If a fracture has been caused by a seatbelt, a contusion over the trunk may be present which can alert the physician to the possibility of a chance fracture.[3] Chance fractures extend horizontally from the tip of the transverse process on one side through the pedicles and laminae to the tip of the opposite transverse process. The fracture may involve the posterior part of the vertebral body. However, involvement of the anterior part of the vertebral body is not common, and chance fractures with anterior involvement are usually not very severe.[4] In cases of fractures with flexion-distraction mechanisms, patients should be examined for intraabdominal injuries.1, 3, 4 Chance-type fractures are unstable injuries that present without neurological deficit and may have subtle radiographic signs.[1] CT can help in diagnosing vertebral column damage and identifying patients with risk of acute neurologic compromise.[1] The most commonly used treatment for chance fracture is closed management; however, open surgery has also been reported.[5] In our case, we observed failure of the posterior and middle vertebra with anterior wedging. Due to the severe fracture, instability, and the probability of neurological consequences, operative management and internal fixation were performed without any complications. Figure 1 (a) A thoracic wedge fracture of the T12 vertebra. (b, c) CT images of the fracture in three columns. Conclusion Severity and the probability of neurological consequences are the factors which determine the importance of considering surgical management for a diagnosed chance fracture.

Combined Effects of Long-Term Sitting and Whole-Body Vibration on Discomfort Onset for Vehicle Occupants

Occupants of automobiles experience discomfort after long drives, irrespective of how well designed a seat might be. Previous studies of discomfort during driving have focused either on the seat shape and materials (“static” properties), long-term discomfort (“fatigue” properties), or dynamics (“vibration” properties). These factors have previously not been considered together. This paper reports three studies with objectives to define and test a model for describing long-term discomfort from vibration. Study 1 was an independent measures laboratory trial using an automobile seat, which lasted 80 minutes; Study 2 was a repeated measures laboratory trial using a rail passenger seat, which lasted 60 minutes; Study 3 was a repeated measures field trial in a people carrier automobile, which involved 70 minutes of travelling. The findings showed that discomfort accrues with time but that more discomfort is experienced when subjects are also exposed to whole-body vibration. Exposure to whole-body vibration accelerates development of discomfort. The relationship between the reported discomfort, the vibration magnitude, and the exposure time can be described using a multifactorial linear model. It is concluded that ignoring parts of the multi-factorial model (i.e., static, dynamic, or temporal factors) will compromise understanding of discomfort in context.

Repeatability of injury value in full-wrap frontal collision tests

Approximately a third of fatalities in traffic accidents in Japan are vehicle occupants and 53% of vehicle accidents in Japan are frontal collisions. The Technical Standard for Occupant Protection in Frontal Collision, adopted by Japan in 1994, defines evaluation criteria as the Head Injury Criterion (HIC), chest acceleration and femur force during a full-wrap frontal collision test conducted at 50 km/h with Hybrid III AM50 dummies mounted on the driver’s and front passenger seats. We investigated the repeatability of measurements made in this full-wrap frontal collision test using four vehicles. We found that the ratios of differences of the measured values to each injury acceptable reference value were an average of 5%, 2% and 3% for the HIC, Chest 3 msecG and femur force, respectively.

Coating Individual Passenger Seats Efficiently

Coating Individual Passenger Seats Efficiently

Drivers’ Attitudes Toward Front or Rear Child Passenger Belt Use and Seat Belt Reminders at These Seating Positions

Objective: Passengers, especially those in rear seating positions, use seat belts less frequently than drivers. In-vehicle technology can inform drivers when their passengers are unbuckled and encourage passengers to use belts. The current study collected information about drivers’ attitudes toward passenger belt use and belt reminders for front passengers and children in back seats. Methods: A national telephone survey of 1218 people 18 and older was conducted, of which 477 respondents were drivers who transport a front seat passenger at least once a week and 254 were drivers who transport an 8- to 15-year-old child in the back seat. Respondents were asked about their attitudes toward belt use by their front passengers or rear child passengers and preferences for different passenger belt reminder features. Results: Ninety percent of drivers who regularly transport front seat passengers said that the passengers always use seat belts. Reported belt use was even higher among 8- to 15-year-old children in the back seat (97%). Among the drivers whose children do not always buckle up, about half said their child unbuckled the belt during the trip. Almost every full-time belt use driver (96%) would encourage front passengers to buckle up if not belted, compared to 57 percent of part-time belt users and nonusers. In contrast, nearly every driver who transports children in the back seat would encourage their belt use, regardless of the driver's belt use habits. Most drivers who transport front passengers wanted passenger belt reminders to encourage passengers to buckle up. Most of these drivers wanted a chime/buzzer or warning light or text display and wanted the reminder to last indefinitely. Most drivers who transport child passengers in the rear seat wanted the vehicle to indicate whether child passengers are unbuckled. A large majority of these drivers wanted notifications via a visual diagram of seating positions and belt use, a chime/buzzer, and a warning light or text display. These drivers also wanted the vehicle to provide belt use information until the child buckled up. Conclusions: Many drivers, especially those who always use seat belts, said they would encourage unbuckled passengers to buckle up and supported auditory and visual belt reminders for passengers, particularly for children sitting in the back seat. Front and rear passenger reminders that last indefinitely would be acceptable to most drivers who transport these passengers. An auditory alert may be especially useful to alert drivers to children unbuckling in the back seat during a trip.

Characterization and consideration of topological impact of wireless propagation in a commercial aircraft environment [wireless corner

Wireless systems are gaining a relevant role for multiple communication tasks within commercial aircraft. In this work, wireless propagation in an indoor commercial airplane cabin is analyzed. The impacts of indoor elements, such as passenger seats, luggage compartments, and a dual deck structure, are considered with the aid of an in-house implemented three-dimensional ray-launching code. Multipath propagation plays a relevant role, given by the time-domain characteristics obtained by spatially dependent power delay profiles and delay spread. The use of deterministic techniques in order to consider the inherent complexity of the airplane's cabin can aid in wireless system planning, in order to increase overall system capacity whilst reducing power consumption.

Geographical specialization and connectivity of air passenger flows from Northern Europe to Asia and US

This paper analyzes the airline network geography of Northern Europe and intercontinental passenger flows to Asia and US. Airline companies and alliances organize themselves according to economic principles attempting to reconcile their profitability, state control, and the passenger needs. States have interests in controlling airline transportation, because the connectivity of cities functions as an instrument for local economic development. Cities as nodes can be characterized by their linkages as central or intermediate. Our paper presents two estimations of international airline connectivity from the cities of Copenhagen, Helsinki, Oslo, Riga, and Stockholm. The data concerns passenger seats per flight per destination. Connectivity was measured based on a network analysis. A gravity model was also formulated to explain divergent geography of the airline connections. The major connecting hub in the region remains Copenhagen, with most connective links to US hubs. The results indicate that the most important factors in the explanation of the total traffic include population, GDP and distance. The resulting geography of connectivity elaborates the competition among the Nordic airports. Copenhagen and Stockholm have the most similar destination palettes and the SAS (Scandinavian Airlines) hub overlaps are evident. Helsinki has the strongest profile towards Asian destinations. The geographical divergence of the flight hub specialization is essentially visible in the case of studied intercontinental flights.

Passenger Seat Vibration Control of Quarter Car System with MR Shock Absorber

Passenger Seat Vibration Control of Quarter Car System with MR Shock Absorber

위치별 진동 측정을 통한 차체강성평가

Road loads data are indispensable in the evaluation of BSR (Buzz, Squeak, and Rattle) of automotive parts/modules. However, there are uncertainties on the best measurement locations for representative body motion and for seat systems. In the present study, we measure road loads at four different locations of a body. A-pillars on the driver and passenger sides and left and right frame fronts of the front passenger seat mountings are selected to study the acceleration behavior at different locations. The measurements are conducted with passenger cars driving local roads at 50km/hr. The measured time-acceleration data are then transformed into PSD (power spectral density) data to compare the characteristics of local accelerations. By defining the deviated acceleration components from rigid body motion, the stiffness of vehicle body could be simply expressed in a quantitative basis. Measured data from two different vehicles are presented to demonstrate their relative vehicle body stiffness.

Evaluation of a child passenger safety class in increasing parental knowledge

BackgroundChild passenger restraint systems have been found to greatly reduce the risk of injury and death among child passengers. However, nearly half of the children who died in 2009 as a result of motor vehicle crashes were completely unrestrained. Our global hypothesis is that parents and other caregivers failed to restrain children due to a lack of child passenger seat education and practice. In this report, we postulate that a car seat class will improve the basic understanding of child passenger safety. The objective of the study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a car seat class in increasing parental knowledge about child passenger safety. MethodsCar seat classes were held at a Level 1 pediatric trauma center every other Tuesday for ten months. The curriculum consisted of: child passenger safety laws discussion, a 21-min video on the use of child safety seats followed by a 15-min discussion about the video, 15min of discussing the different types of car seats, and hands-on training on how to properly install and use child restraints. Free car seats were provided to eligible parents. The pre-test was administered at the beginning of class and the post-test at the end of the class. McNemar's test and a paired t-test were used to compare pre- and post-test scores. Test scores were also stratified by language spoken. ResultsForty-four classes were held and a total of 491 parents/caregivers attended the classes. An increase in knowledge was found for all survey questions. Mean knowledge score for the post-test was 3.10 points higher compared to the mean knowledge score from the pre-test. Mean difference in knowledge scores for English-speaking participants were higher than Spanish-speaking participants. ConclusionLack of knowledge and low risk perception have frequently been cited as barriers for the use of child passenger restraints. Our intervention attempted to eliminate these barriers. We found that this intervention was effective at increasing parental knowledge about child passenger safety. The results of this study may be used to design and implement future interventions in multicultural settings.

Experimental Investigation on Road Vehicle Active Suspension

This paper presents an investigation report for an electronically controlled pneumatic suspension system. The performance improvement in the passenger’s comfort and attitude behaviour are evaluated for a proportional integral derivative (PID) controlled pneumatic suspension design. An appropriate mathematical model is developed for a single wheel suspension with the passenger seat system. The simulation is accomplished through LABVIEW and lab-based experimental analysis is conducted. Based on simulation and experimental values, the enhanced performance is shown through comparative results. The proposed system with the PID control improves the ride comfort and provides better road-holding characteristics, as compared to the passive suspension system.

Dick Humbird and the Devil Wagon of Doom Cars, Carnivores, and Feminine Carnality inThis Side of Paradise

Dick Humbird and the Devil Wagon of Doom Cars, Carnivores, and Feminine Carnality in<i>This Side of Paradise</i>

Introduction

The manuscripts in the Fall 2013 issue of the Transportation Journal have an underlying global theme. In the first article by Xue, Maltz, and Villalobos, the researchers evaluated and validated a freight forecasting model on an important trade corridor between the United States and Mexico. The study helps to fill the need for better forecasting of freight movement in cross-border ports of entry, and the study's findings can aid planners in making infrastructure investment decisions.In the second article by Leon, Szmerekovsky, and Tolliver, the researchers explored a new approach to airline seat allocation to global markets. While the research focused on passenger seat allocation, improving the financial strength of the global airline industry is critical in maintaining a viable global air cargo network as well.Manuj, Omar, and Yazdanparast developed a conceptual framework for interorganizational learning (IOL) in the third article of this issue. They reviewed literature and theories in logistics, supply chain management, operations, and strategic management. Given the participation of multiple organizations in supply chains, IOL has much potential for application in supply chain management.In the fourth article, Jang, Marlow, and Mitroussi explored the role of logistics service quality in generating shipper loyalty in the container shipping industry. The researchers utilize structural equation modeling to analyze the relationships among key variables. This article is the first of a series of articles from the 2012 International Association of Marine Economists Conference that will be published in the Transportation Journal.The 2012 International Association of Maritime Economists Conference (IAME), which was held in Taipei, Taiwan, September 5–8, 2012, provided a unique global conference for academics, key industry practitioners, and policymakers from diverse backgrounds and interests to meet, discuss, and debate critical and challenging issues. The conference theme of “Clustering Logistics with Ports and Shipping Services in the Time of Free Trade Era” underscores the critical interface between ocean and inland surface transportation, a theme reiterated in the selected articles. The cohosts and co-organizers of the conference, Shipping, Port, and Logistics Research Center of Kainan University, Jungseok Research Institute of International Logistics and Trade of Inha University in Korea, and Chinese Maritime Research Institute in Taiwan, attracted more than 240 delegates from 35 countries. Professor Paul T.-W. Lee at Soochow University in Taiwan was the conference chairman and administered the review that led to the three best papers being selected for publication in the Transportation Journal.In the book review section, two books were reviewed. Ralph Sees reviewed Guide to Supply Chain Management: How Getting It Right Boosts Corporate Performance, which was authored by David Jacoby, and John Spychalski reviewed Territorial Implications of High-Speed Rail—A Spanish Perspective, which was edited by José M. de Ureña.

Optimizing Intratheater Military Airlift in Iraq and Afghanistan

Abstract : The Air Tasking and Efficiency Model (ATEM) has been used since 2006. Its development was motivated by an urgent need to plan and evaluate intratheater airlift of passengers and palletized freight for Operation Iraqi Freedom in Iraq and Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan. ATEM plans routes and aircraft configurations (capacity of passenger seats and pallet positions) for a heterogeneous fleet of aircraft flying between multiple airfields. ATEM respects limits on crew duty periods, times and abilities of each airfield to handle and fuel each aircraft type, and aircraft speed and carrying capacity. Initially, ATEM advised improving daily and weekly route ensembles, conveying more passengers and pallets and using fewer aircraft than prior manually generated solutions. This early use reduced the required number of ground convoys and thereby exposure to improvised explosive devices. Later, ATEM advised where to advantageously move aircraft to new home airfields, how to shift aircraft between theaters, and when to bring aircraft home from war.

Total Design of Active Neck Support System for Economy Class Aircraft Seat

Travel by air with long hours will create discomfort feeling for aircraft passenger especially economy class aircraft passenger. Long hour air travel will create physiological stress on aircraft passenger. It may due to seat space limitation, noise, vibration, cabin humidity as well as seat comfort. Seat comfort is a subjective feeling that related to psychological aspect of aircraft passenger. The current aircraft passenger seat is equipped with a passive function where the passenger themselves needs to adjust the seat for comfort seating position. The aircraft passenger will not able to adjust the seat when the aircraft passenger is in the low activity condition. The active seat support system was developed to support the aircraft passenger actively. The first prototype of active seat support system is focus on neck section. The head position of the aircraft seat was embedded with the system to detect the head position of the passenger. During the development of the active seat support system, total design technique was used. Five conceptual designs were generated for selection. To determine the final design of active neck support system, the matrix evaluation method was used. The weight of the concept was obtained through weight analysis.