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Vibration Effect Investigation in Baby Car Seats and Automobile Seats

Article in SAE Technical Papers · April 2014

DOI: 10.4271/2014-01-0462

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Vibration Effect Investigation in Baby Car Seats and 2014-01-0462

Automobile Seats Published 04/01/2014

Se Jin Park, Seung Nam Min, Murali Subramaniyam, Heeran Lee, Dong Gyun Kim, and
Cheol Pyo Hong
Korea Res. Inst. of Standards & Science

CITATION: Park, S., Min, S., Subramaniyam, M., Lee, H. et al., "Vibration Effect Investigation in Baby Car Seats and
Automobile Seats," SAE Technical Paper 2014-01-0462, 2014, doi:10.4271/2014-01-0462.
Copyright © 2014 SAE International

Abstract suspension for engrossing the vibrations evoked from road

roughness [11]. The vibration is one of the principal
Vibration is both a source of discomfort and a possible risk to
components related to the ride comfort [1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7].
human health. There have been numerous studies and
Vibration transmitted to the buttocks and also the back of the
knowledge exists regarding the vibrational behavior of vehicle
occupant along the vertebral axis via the bottom and the back
seats on adult human occupants. Children are more and more
of the seat has a large influence on comfort, performance, and
becoming regular passengers in the vehicle. However, very
health; particularly the whole-body vibration plays a crucial role
little knowledge available regarding the vibrational behavior of
in it [8, 9]. Whole-body vibration principally transmitted through
child safety seats for children. Therefore, the objective of this
the seat surfaces, backrests, and through the floor to an
study was to measure the vibrations in three different baby car
individual sitting in the vehicle [2]. There are various studies
seats and to compare these to the vibrations at the interface
and data exists relating to the vibration behavior of car seats
between the driver and the automobile seat. The test was
on adult human occupants [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7]. To improve the
performed on the National road at the average speed of 70
vibration isolation characteristics necessary effort has been
km/h and acceleration levels were recorded for about 350 Sec
created to the primary seating systems. Children are more and
(5.83 min). One male driver considered as an adult occupant
more becoming regular passengers in vehicles. The child
and a dummy having a mass of 9 kg was representing one
safety seats have been the object of interest in terms of crash
year old baby. Four accelerometers were used to measure the
safety [12, 13, 14].The main importance of the child safety seat
vibration. All measured accelerations were relative to the
is to produce protection within the case of an accident. Comfort
vertical direction. Vibration Analysis Toolset (VATS) was used
is additionally a crucial issue as the child can be constrained to
for time domain analysis. Based on the ISO 2631-1's levels of
remain in the seat for a prolonged period of time. Analysis
discomfort, all the baby car seats acceleration levels were
suggests that small children have well developed sensory
between 0.315 - 0.63 m/s2 level, which showed that baby car
capabilities, the same as those of adults [15, 16]. Therefore,
seats considered were little uncomfortable for the baby
child comfort would appear vital analysis. However, very little
occupants. The baby car seat 3 comparatively had a lesser
analysis has been performed relating to the vibrational
exposure to vibration (i.e., lesser VDV value) and better
behavior of child safety seats. The influence of vibrations of the
vibration isolation property than other baby car seats.
adult people's bodies has been comparatively well delineate
and mirrored in varied ISO standards (ISO 2631, ISO 5982,
Introduction and ISO 7962). For children, however, the studies on these
problems are still at an early stage. This paper presents the
Vehicle ride comfort is one among the foremost outstanding
results of an investigation of the influence of vertical vibrations
factors affecting customer satisfaction. The ride comfort plays a
that are transmitted to the baby car seats throughout the rides.
crucial role within the vehicle design. At the side of
The objective of this study was to measure the vibrations in
technological development and life-quality improvement, users
three different baby car seats and to check these to the
have higher and better demand for ride quality and automotive
vibrations at the interface between the driver and the
performance [1, 2, 3, 4, 10]. Ride comfort primarily depends on
automobile seat.
the potential of the tires and also the properties of the
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Methods Table 2. Characteristics of baby car seat

Subject
The road tests carried out included measurements intended to
define the impact of vibrations on the adult and compare it with
the impact of such vibrations on the baby transported in a
safety seat. A 38 year old male driver having a mass of 73 kg
and 176 cm height was representing an adult. A dummy having
a mass of 9 kg and 65 cm height was representing one year
old baby depending on the Korean anthropometric data.

Equipment
The experiment consisted of two cars (Table 1) and three
commercially available baby car seats (Table 2 & Fig. 1). In
Korea, almost all the baby car seats are fastened employing a
belt system in an automobile. Therefore, the baby car seats
were installed in the rear seat of the automobile using vehicle's
belts according to product instructions. The test sensors
consisted of four tri-axial accelerometers (Series 2A
Accelerometers, NexGen Ergonomics Inc, Canada) [17], two of
Figure 1. Baby car seat and a baby dummy
which were used in their original form to measure floor
vibration and two of which were mounted in seat pads for
measuring vibration at the points of contact with the human Procedure
occupant and baby dummy. Two accelerometers (original form)
were placed on the floor by means of accelerometer wax which
guaranteed right mechanical coupling to frequencies in excess
of 500 Hz. One was placed on the rear bolt of the outermost
seat guide rail of the driver's seat and the other was placed at
the same point of the passenger's seat. In terms of seat pads,
one seat pad was then adjusted to be under the ischial
tuberosities of the driver (the test participant) and the other
seat pad was adjusted to be under the baby dummy. All
measured accelerations were relative to the vertical direction
(z-axis, as per ISO 2631-1) of the vehicle which is normally the
axis with the highest vibration level in automobiles [8]. As
directions of measurement, vibration shall be measured
according to a coordinate system originating at a point from
which vibration is considered to enter the human body. For a
person seated on an inclined seat, the relevant orientation
should be determined by the axes of the body, and the z-axis
will not necessarily be vertical [19]. ISO2631- 1 has no
requirements to show the exact measurement points, axes,
and no description about the effects of different measurement
positions. Biometric DataLOG (model: MWX8; 8 channels) was
Figure 2. Experimental flowchart
used to collect the data from the accelerometers.
The test was performed on the National road (Yuseong,
Table 1. Characteristics of automobile Daejeon, South Korea) at the average speed of 70 km/h and
only a single run was considered. The speed was controlled by
the driver using the vehicle’s instrumentation. The total
distance of travel was 5 km for each seat and/or car; the
acceleration level recorded for the whole distance about 350
sec (5.83 min) data for every seat and/or car. After installing
the test instrumentations a series of pre-test drives were
performed. The experimental procedure in Fig. 2 was adopted
for every seats and cars. The acquired data were downloaded
from the DataLOG to a PC for further analysis. Vibration
Analysis Toolset (VATS) was used for time domain analysis.
The acceleration time histories were sampled at a rate of 500
Hz. Fourier analysis was performed using an FFT block size of
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1024 points and a Hanning window. The band limiting filters
(high pass at 0.4 Hz and low pass at 100 Hz) were used with
frequency weighting as recommended by ISO 2631-1.
Analysis
The manner in which vibration affects health, comfort,
perception and motion sickness is dependent on the vibration
content [8, 10]. The comfort rating was determined by means
of the frequency weighting filters defined in ISO 2631 and BS
6841 standards. As ISO 2631 and BS 6841 indicate, the
human response to vibration differs by the axes and the
frequency of the vibration. The weightings have been derived
(Table 3) from the study by Griffin [8].
Table 3. Frequency Weightings
Root Mean Square
The vibration evaluation according to the ISO 2631-1 shall
always include measurements of the frequency weighted root
mean square (R.M.S) acceleration and is defined by Eqn. 1.
The RMS method is a statistical measure of the magnitude of a
varying quantity. Table 4 shows the levels of discomfort
considered as proposed by ISO 2631-1, based on the RMS
values of the vertical acceleration measured.
(1)
Where, a (t) is the frequency-weighted acceleration time
history; T is the duration of the measurement, in seconds.
Table 4. Levels of discomfort ISO 2631-1; BS 6841
Vibration Dose Value (VDV)
The VDV gives a measure of the total exposure to vibration,
taking into account the magnitude, frequency, and exposure
duration. The VDV reflects the total, rather than the average,
exposure to vibration over the measurement period [8, 9]. The
VDV calculated using Eqn. 2.
(2)
Where, a (t) is the frequency-weighted acceleration time
history, and T is the period of time over which vibration occurs
(BS 6841, 1987; ISO 2631, 1997).
Crest Factor
The crest factor is defined as the modulus of the ratio of the
maximum instantaneous peak value of the frequency-weighted
acceleration signal to its R.M.S. value. The crest factor is
usually calculated from the acceleration after it has been
frequency weighted according to human sensitivity to different
frequencies.
(3)
Seat Effective Amplitude Transmissibility
(SEAT) Value
SEAT values can be used to determine how well a seat
attenuates vibration from the floor. It is a non-dimensional
measure of the efficiency of a seat in isolating the body from
vibration or shock. SEAT value greater than 100 % means the
vibration discomfort has been increased by the seat, SEAT
value lower than 100 % indicates that the level of vibration is
reduced by the seat (or) useful isolation provided by the seat
[8, 10]. SEAT value can be calculated either using the
frequency-weighted RMS accelerations (Eqn. 4) or using the
VDV (Eqn. 5) as proposed by ISO 2631. If there is a high crest
factor for the motion either on the floor or on the seat, the
SEAT value should be obtained using VDV (Eqn. 5).
(4)
(5)
Results and Discussion
This study was to measure the vibrations in three different
baby car seats and to compare these to the vibrations at the
interface between the driver and the automobile seat. The
RMS values of the driver seats and baby car seats are
presented (Fig. 3); the horizontal dotted line represents the ISO
2631-1 comfort level (0.315 m/s2); the vibration values under
this level were comfortable to the occupants.
Overall, the source or floor vibrations (at driver seat and rear
seat) were higher than the vibrations on the interfaces (driver
seat to driver; baby car seat to baby dummy). The vibration
levels (RMS values) measured at the interface between the
baby dummy and their respective seat were higher than
vibration levels measured at the interface between the driver
and their respective driver seat. As per ISO 2631-1
acceleration levels of discomfort, it was clear that both cars’
driver seat were comfortable for the occupants (RMS
acceleration levels on the driver seat pan were less than 0.315
m/s2). However, all the baby car seats acceleration levels
(except baby car seat 3 on car 1) were between 0.315 - 0.63
m/s2 level, which shows that baby car seats considered were a
little uncomfortable for the baby occupants. The vibration level
measured at the interface between the baby dummy and baby
car seat 3 (in both cars’) were lesser than those measured
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from another baby seat. Even though our focus about baby car
seat vibration, also we compared the vibration levels between
cars. Overall, car 2’s vibration levels at the driver seat and the
baby seats (both on the floor and seat pan) were higher than
the car 1. The variables such as tire, suspension, and seat
property are the major components contributing to the ride
quality or vibration [5]. In our study, the car 1’s characteristics
were comparatively better than car 2’s. Therefore, it was
expected that car 1’s vibration levels were lesser than the car
2.
Figure 3. RMS values (only z-axis) for the driver seats and baby car
seats (Where, DF - Driver seat guide; DS - Driver seat interface; BF -
Rear seat guide or passenger seat guide; BS - Baby car seat interface;
dotted horizontal line - ISO 2631-1 comfort level)
The crest factor values of the driver seats and baby car seats
are presented (Fig. 4), were calculated using Eqn. 3. The crest
factor for typical vibration in vehicle during a good road
condition is in the range of 3-6. However, in our study, all the
crest factor values were higher than 9. Therefore, the SEAT
values were calculated using VDV, as per ISO 2631-1
recommendation.
Figure 4. Crest factor for the driver seats and baby car seats
The VDV values of the driver seats and baby seats are
presented (Fig. 5). As explained earlier, the VDV gives a
measure of the total exposure to vibration and reflects the total,
rather than the average. The total exposure to vibration i.e.,
VDV values at the baby car seats were higher than the driver
seats. In terms of the baby car seats, baby car seat 3
comparatively had a lesser exposure to vibration than other
baby car seats. Overall, car 1's VDV values were lesser than
car 2. Therefore, car 1 had a lesser exposure to vibration than
the car 2.
Figure 5. VDV for the driver seats and baby car seats
The SEAT values of the driver seats and baby car seats are
presented (Fig. 6). The SEAT values were calculated using
Eqn. 5, because all the seats crest factor values were higher
than 9. The SEAT values of the baby car seats and both car
driver seats were less than 1, which represents all the seats
had vibration isolation characteristic. However, the SEAT
values were different between the baby car seats. The baby
car seat 3 had a better vibration isolation quality than other
seats.
Figure 6. Transmissibility or SEAT values for the driver seats and baby
car seats
The baby car seats considered in this study were all designed
to be fastened to the vehicle by means of the vehicle's belts.
This arrangement does not provide rigid coupling between the
vehicle and a baby seat. ISOFIX is an attachment system
provides a rigid coupling between the baby car seat and the
vehicle body. It would be expected different vibration
characteristics of the ISOFIX system than belt system.
Summary/Conclusions
The vibration levels measured at the interface between the
baby dummy and their respective seat were higher than
vibration levels measured at the interface between the driver
and their respective driver seat. All the crest factor values were
higher than 9. Baby car seat 3 comparatively had a lesser
 Downloaded from SAE International by Se Park, Thursday, March 06, 2014 07:25:40 PM
exposure to vibration than other baby car seats. Based on the
ISO 2631-1's levels of discomfort, all the baby car seats
acceleration levels were between 0.315 - 0.63 m/s2 level,
which shows that baby car seats considered were little
uncomfortable for the baby occupants. However, the ISO
2631-1 dedicated to the influence of vibrations on the adult
people's bodies. It is expected that ISOFIX system would
provide different and better vibration characteristics than the
belt system. If differences are confirmed by future research, it
will have important implications for baby seating comfort.
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