Experiment and Simulation Study on Vibration Transmission Characteristics of Seat-Occupant Coupling System

The seat-occupant coupling system (SoCS) is nonlinear, and its vibration characteristics directly affect the dynamic comfort of the human body. To simulate the vibration characteristics of the SoCS accurately and provide a reference for the dynamic comfort, the finite element human body model and SoCS model are established in this paper. First, tests for the static stiffness of the polyurethane foam and the dynamic apparent mass (APMS) of a human body are performed to expose the nonlinearity of the seat and the human body, respectively. Then, vibration transmissibility test is carried out to evaluate the vibration characteristics of the SoCS. Third, the simulation models (including the human body model and the SoCS model) are founded and calibrated based on the above test data. Finally, the consistency of simulation and experimental results is evaluated and quantified by introducing the goodness of fit. The results indicate that (1) The human body model calibrated by seated weight, modal properties, and APMS has high precision, which can reflect the dynamic characteristics of the subject accurately. (2) The proposed SoCS model can better predict the vibration characteristics of subjects under both vertical excitation and road profile excitation, which has practical significance for the future development of vibration comfort.