A dummy for the objective ride comfort evaluation of ground vehicles

A new device for an objective evaluation of ground vehicle ride comfort is presented. In this study, the ride comfort (frequency range 0-30Hz) has been referred to the acceleration acting along the vertical axis (subject spine) and to the longitudinal acceleration (acting at the subject shoulders). Based on the experimental measurements of such accelerations on different human subjects seated on a car seat, a proper mechanical/mathematical model of the seat+subject has been derived. The derivation of the model has been performed by minimising the error between the measured and the computed accelerations. A prototype of the derived mechanical model has been actually built. Particular attention has been devoted to the construction of the springs, of the moving members and of the magnetic damper. All of the device parameters (mass, stiffness, damping) can be easily tuned. Finally, an experimental validation of the device has been performed. The device, while seated with the same posture of the corresponding human subject is able to reproduce (with reasonable accuracy) both the acceleration along the subject spine and the acceleration at the subject shoulders.