Subjective Response to Whole-Body Vibration

Abstract

Pioneer studies of subjective response to whole-body vibration were mainly directed toward construction of equal intensity contours, described by such subjective labels as “intolerable,” “alarming,” or “annoying.” In a series of more recent investigations, carried out at AFAMRL, psychophysical measurement and scaling techniques have been adapted for use in whole-body vibration experiments, primarily to evaluate the intensive dimension of various types of vibration environments. A program of research is described in which the methods of magnitude estimation and intensity matching have been used to construct a family of Z-axis equal intensity curves in the whole-body resonance frequency range; investigate subjective response for frequencies below 1 Hz; evaluate alternative methods for assessing the severity of multifrequency and random vibrations; and compare the subjective intensity of vibrations in various translational and angular modes. Results from these experiments have contributed to the expansion and improvement of whole-body vibration exposure criteria.