SEAT parameter assessment in urban buses

Abstract

Whole Body Vibration is a main concern in many working activities. One of those is the urban bus drivers. So, in this study, the main goal is to evaluate the quality of the different seats used in the different bus of an urban transport company, using the SEAT (Seat Effective Amplitude Transmissibility) parameter. For that, the RMS (Root Mean Square) on the seat and on the floor of the bus was evaluated. It was found a decrease in SEAT value between 20% and 35% for seats with regulation's control and a small increase in SEAT value for seats without regulation. However, the smallest RMS values were found in a small bus with no seat regulation. So cannot be established any direct relation between SEAT and the RMS / comfort values for the seat of the urban buses. However, SEAT parameter is an excellent indicator of seats' capacity to reduce the RMS values and, consequently, to analyze the quality of those equipment.