Discomfort from feeling vehicle vibration

Vehicle refinement should include a consideration of the discomfort likely to be caused by vibration. This paper reviews the measurement, the evaluation, and the assessment of vehicle vibration felt by drivers and passengers. The feeling of vibration that gives rise to judgements of vibration discomfort can be predicted using evaluation procedures that take into account human sensitivity to different magnitudes, frequencies, directions, and durations of vibration. The evaluation methods make it possible to optimise vehicles via dynamic modelling before the production of prototypes and they assist the testing and optimisation of prototypes and production vehicles. Vibration evaluation provides imperfect predictions of discomfort when driver or passenger opinion is influenced by factors other than the vibration that is being measured and evaluated. Vibration evaluation can detect changes that are not detectable subjectively since smaller changes can be detected by measurement and evaluation than by subjective assessment.