Biodynamics of the human body under whole-body vibration: Synthesis of the reported data

Identification of most probable ranges of biodynamic responses of the human body exposed to whole-body vibration is essential for developing effective integrated human-machine system design tools, improved vibration mitigation devices and frequency-weighting for exposure assessment. The international standard, ISO-5982 (2001), defines such ranges for very limited conditions, namely for body seated without a back support and exposed to vertical vibration. The reported data on biodynamic responses of the seated and standing human body exposed to whole-body vibration along different directions and the associated experimental conditions are systematically reviewed in an attempt to identify datasets that are likely to represent comparable and practical postural and exposure conditions. Syntheses of datasets, selected on the basis of a set of criterion, are performed to identify the most probable ranges of biodynamic responses of the human body to whole-body vibration. These include the driving-point biodynamic responses of the body seated with and without a back support while exposed to fore-aft, lateral and vertical vibration and those of the standing body to vertical vibration, and seat-to-head vibration transmissibility of the seated body. The proposed ranges are expected to serve as reasonable target functions in various applications involving coupled human-system dynamics in the design process, and potentially for developing better frequency-weightings for exposure assessments