The Effect of the Operation Time, Orientation of Passenger and Body Mass Index on Passengers’ Whole-Body Vibration on Urban Rail

Abstract

Urban rail is a widely used public transportation; the vibration from frequent rides may impact passengers. The rail vehicle’s vibrations can cause human fatigue and result in severe musculoskeletal problems to the passenger. This paper aims to identify the effects of passenger orientation, operation time and body mass index on passengers’ whole-body vibration on an urban rail in Malaysia. Real-time monitoring of the whole-body vibration was conducted using 23 full factorial designs of the experiment, which was analysed statistically using Minitab Software. The overall result of this study is that the passengers in a seated position had greater exposure to whole-body vibration, which is 0.3686 ms-2 than standing passengers, 0.2965 ms-2. Also, passengers tend to be exposed to greater vibration during an off-peak time of 0.4063 ms-2, than a peak time of 0.3706 ms-2. Lastly, overweight passengers were exposed to greater vibration, of 0.4063 ms-2, than passengers within the ideal weight range of 0.4000 ms-2. This study has statistically proven that all the factors were significantly influenced the vibration exposure to the passenger. The most significant factor towards the vibration exposure is the “Body Mass Index (BMI)”, in which the p-value is less than 0.001. This study concludes that the whole-body vibration of a passenger is affected by the orientation of the passenger, operation time and body mass index of passengers on urban rail service.