Studies on human responses to vibration and vehicle system dynamics

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The primary goal is to conduct systematic analytical and experimental investigations in: (i) human responses to occupational vibration exposure and to seek effective interventions through vibration control; and (ii) vehicle systems dynamics for enhancement of safety dynamics limit and vibration comfort. The motivations for the first subject stem from the fact that occupational exposure to segmental and whole-body mechanical vibration has been associated with an array of health and safety risks. For example, the occupational exposure of operators to hand-held power tools vibration has been related to various disorders in vascular, sensorineural and musculoskeletal structures of the hand-arm system, while that to whole-body vibration environment of work vehicles has been related to disorders of the spine and supporting structure, discomfort, fatigue and loss of working efficiency. The latter research focus is concerned with safety dynamic limits of partly-filled tank trucks, advanced vehicle suspension concepts and vehicle vibration control. The long-term goal of the proposed research is to develop effective methods for assessing risks to vibration exposure, effective vibration control mechanisms, and build knowledge on the role of various operating factors. The proposed research program will focus on a number of specific studies in order to achieve the goals, namely: (i) characterization and modelling of biodynamic responses of the hand-arm system to multi-axes tools vibration ; (ii) analyses of distributed biodynamic responses in terms of vibration energy transfer to various substructures for deriving frequency-weighting; (iii) biodynamic response characterization of seated human body to whole-body vibration along vertical and horizontal axes; (iv) analyses of design concepts in antislosh devices for enhancement of directional performance of partly-filled tank trucks; (vi) analyses of semi-active and advanced pasive suspension concepts. The research works are also expected to contribute to the ongoing standradization efforts towards building guidelines and methods for assessing the helath and safety risks imposed by occupational shock and vibration exposures.