The vibration discomfort of standing people: evaluation of multi-axis vibration

Abstract

Few studies have investigated discomfort caused by multi-axis vibration and none has explored methods of predicting the discomfort of standing people from simultaneous fore-and-aft, lateral and vertical vibration of a floor. Using the method of magnitude estimation, 16 subjects estimated their discomfort caused by dual-axis and tri-axial motions (octave-bands centred on either 1 or 4 Hz with various magnitudes in the fore-and-aft, lateral and vertical directions) and the discomfort caused by single-axis motions. The method of predicting discomfort assumed in current standards (square-root of the sums of squares of the three components weighted according to their individual contributions to discomfort) provided reasonable predictions of the discomfort caused by multi-axis vibration. Improved predictions can be obtained for specific stimuli, but no single simple method will provide accurate predictions for all stimuli because the rate of growth of discomfort with increasing magnitude of vibration depends on the frequency and direction of vibration.

Abstract

Practitioner Summary: Useful estimates of the vibration discomfort of standing people can be obtained from the root-sums-of squares of the floor acceleration in each of the three directions (fore-and-aft, lateral and vertical) if the three components are frequency-weighted according to the dependence of discomfort on the frequency of vibration in each axis.

Keywords:

• whole-body vibration
• standing
• multi-axis vibration
• discomfort

Acknowledgements

This study was conducted with the support of Société Nationale des Chemins de fer Français (SNCF), Paris, France. The assistance of Cedric Gallais is gratefully acknowledged.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.