Gender and Anthropometric Effects on Seat-to-Head Transmissibility Responses to Vertical Whole-Body Vibration of Humans Seated on an Elastic Seat

Abstract

This study investigated the effects of gender and ten different anthropometric parameters on the vertical vibration transmission from seat to the head of the body seated on an elastic seat. The seat-to-head transmissibility (STHT) responses in the vertical and fore-aft directions of 58 participants (31 males and 27 females) were measured under three levels of vertical vibration (root mean square acceleration: 0.25, 0.50, and 0.75 m/s2) in the 0.50–20 Hz range, when sitting on a viscoelastic seat with and without a vertical back support, and with hands on a steering wheel. Apart from the important effects of elastic coupling between the body and seat, the results show distinctly different vertical and fore-aft STHT responses from the two genders. Moreover, the gender effect was strongly coupled with back support and excitation conditions. The primary resonance frequencies of male subjects were higher than those of female subjects, while the peak vertical STHT magnitudes were comparable. Owing to the strong coupled effects of gender and anthropometric dimensions, the study is designed to reduce the coupling by considering datasets for subjects with comparable chosen dimensions. Among the various anthropometric dimensions considered, the body mass and fat mass revealed strong influences on the primary resonance frequency, which was similar for male and female subjects with comparable body mass index and body fat mass. The vertical STHT magnitude of the two genders with the same lean body mass was also nearly identical. The peak fore-aft STHT magnitudes of the male subjects were notably higher than those of the female subjects with comparable anthropometric dimensions with the exception of the body mass.

Keywords

• whole-body vibration
• seated body biodynamic response
• STHT response
• vibration transmissibility
• elastic seat
• gender effect