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Evaluation of the vibration transmitted to pilot’s body parts to determine the contribution of different design parameters in deficiency of available seats

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Abstract

Many systems deal with the problem of undesired vibration transmitted to the occupant through the seat. It is an important issue related to the health and comfort of the occupant. In helicopters, it is a crucial problem regarding exposure of helicopter pilots to high vibration level. The seat as the main interface part plays a key role in order to reduce the vibration transmitted to the occupant body. Therefore, evaluation of the effect of the seat and its auxiliary equipment on the vibration reduction transmitted to the occupant is necessary. In this paper, a comprehensive evaluation is done concerning on the impact of the seat accessories (such as the suspension system and cushion) and attached equipment onto the helmet (such as the Night Vision Goggle and helmet-mounted display systems) on the vibration transmitted to the pilot’s body parts, especially the head, in order to determine contribution of seat design parameters in the vibration transmissibility reduction. Evaluations are performed based on ISO-2631 and conventional criteria using two distinctive model of occupant’s body. In addition, a beneficial mathematical relation is derived between the SEAT value and cushion characteristics. Accordingly, the characteristics of optimal cushion and the optimal seat suspension are derived from the results of the evaluations. Also in a scarce study, the impact of the seat parameters and attached equipment onto helmet on the neck stretch of pilot are evaluated under flight situation. In order to reach realistic results, the simulations are performed based on the measured vibration data of a Bell-412 helicopter. The results reveal that the optimal cushion and seat suspension system can decrease pilot vibration level up to 20% individually, but utilizing both of them together has not significant impact on more reduction of the vibration transmissibility.

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Fig. 1

Adapted from ISO 2631-1 [41]

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Notes

  1. Generally in standards, human body model do not mentioned but models may be presented based on requirements of any standards that have fairly good compatibility with them.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Shahid Beheshti Univ, Tehran, Iran

    Ehsan Davoodi & Pedram Safarpour

  2. Department of Electrical Engineering, Shahid Beheshti Univ, Tehran, Iran

    Mahdi Pourgholi

  3. School of Mechanical Engineering, Iran University of Science and Technology, Tehran, Iran

    Mostafa Khazaee

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  1. Ehsan Davoodi
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  2. Pedram Safarpour
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  4. Mostafa Khazaee
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Correspondence to Pedram Safarpour.

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Davoodi, E., Safarpour, P., Pourgholi, M. et al. Evaluation of the vibration transmitted to pilot’s body parts to determine the contribution of different design parameters in deficiency of available seats. Int J Interact Des Manuf 16, 339–357 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12008-021-00829-2

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