Correlation of ride comfort evaluation methods for railway vehicles

Abstract

Ride comfort is one of the most important dynamic performance characteristics of railway vehicles and is affected by various factors, such as vibration, acoustic sound, smell, temperature, visual stimuli, humidity and seat design. In general, vibration is known to be a major factor that affects ride comfort. There are many studies on methods for evaluating ride comfort in railway vehicles, and many standards or criteria have been developed and used in many countries. Most of the evaluation methods, however, recommend different evaluation methods and criteria, so users should carefully choose a ride comfort evaluation method and must examine whether it can be applied to their railway vehicles or not. The present study has looked at relationships between several evaluation methods using a vibration model resulting from frequency analysis and statistical analysis of acceleration measurements of railway vehicles. The present vibration model yields abundant data for correlation of the ride comfort indices, resulting in reliable relations between the ride comfort indices.