Vibration transmission through the seated human body captured with a computationally efficient multibody model

Raj Desai, Georgios Papaioannou, Riender Happee

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Abstract

Existing models of vibration transmission through the seated human body are primarily two-dimensional, focusing on the mid-sagittal plane and in-plane excitation. However, these models have limitations when the human body is subjected to vibrations in the mid-coronal plane. Three-dimensional (3D) human models have been primarily developed for impact analysis. Recently, we showed that such a 3D active human model can also predict vibration transmission. However, existing 3D body models suffer from excessive computational time requirements due to their complexity. To effectively analyze motion comfort, this research presents a 3D computationally efficient human model (EHM), running faster than real-time, with scope for real-time vehicle and seat motion control to enhance comfort. The EHM is developed by considering various combinations of body segments and joint degrees of freedom, interacting with multibody (MB) and finite element (FE) seat compliance models. Postural stabilization parameters are estimated using an optimization process based on experimental frequency-dependent gain responses for different postures (erect/slouched) and backrest support (low/high) conditions. The model combines two postural control mechanisms: 1) joint angle control capturing reflexive and intrinsic stabilization for each degree of freedom with PID controllers, including integration to eliminate drift, and 2) head-in-space control minimizing 3D head rotation. Interaction with a compliant seat was modeled using deformable finite elements and multibody contact models. Results showed the importance of modeling both compressive and shear deformation of the seat and the human body. Traditional stick-slip multibody contact failed to reproduce seat-to-human vibration transmission. Combining efficient body modeling principles, innovative postural adaptation techniques, and advanced seat contact strategies, this study lays a robust foundation for predicting and optimizing motion comfort.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)(In-Press)
Number of pages34
JournalMultibody System Dynamics
Volume(In-Press)
Early online date6 Sept 2024
DOIs
Publication statusE-pub ahead of print - 6 Sept 2024

Bibliographical note

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

Funder

The research was supported by Toyota Motor Corporation.

Funding

The research was supported by Toyota Motor Corporation.

FundersFunder number
Toyota Motor Corporation

    Keywords

    • Multibody
    • Vibration
    • Comfort
    • Postural stabilization
    • Automated driving
    • Seat design

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