Study of the dynamic behaviour of a human driver coupled with a vehicle

In this paper a 15-degree-of-freedom human–seat vibratory model is developed using anthropomorphic modelling and the model is coupled with a typical seven-degree-of-freedom small passenger car to study the dynamic response of a human driver due to vehicle vibrations. The coupled model is analysed by MATLAB simulation for the ride dynamic behaviour of the human driver under a harmonic input excitation in the frequency range 0–40 Hz. The ride behaviours in terms of the vertical accelerations of different segments of the human driver are compared with respect to the ride comfort using the ISO 2631-1:1997 standard. Further, parametric analysis is carried out to improve the ride comfort of the human driver.