Sensitivity Analysis of a Driver’s Lumped Parameter Model in the Evaluation of Ride Comfort

The ride comfort provided by a vehicle to the driver and the passengers is an important feature, directly correlated to the technical characteristics of the suspension system of the vehicle. In the literature, several lumped-parameter models simulating the vehicle and the driver are proposed for the computational evaluation of ride comfort. In order to quantify ride comfort, other than the values of acceleration, metrics such as seat effective amplitude transmissibility (SEAT) and seat-to-head transmissibility (STHT) are utilized. In this paper, a quarter car model is coupled with a six-degree-of-freedom lumped-parameter model, consisting of the driver’s seat and the driver. A sensitivity analysis is performed on the values of the lumped parameters of the seated human body with regard to ride comfort in order to evaluate the effect of their accuracy relative to the ride comfort evaluation. The results of the sensitivity analysis revealed that the values of the mass, the stiffness and the damping parameters of the seated human model influence the ride-comfort metrics to a different extent. Furthermore, it was depicted that ride-comfort metrics were affected in different manners depending on the characteristics of the excitation of the vehicle, yet less than 10% Finally, the importance of the consideration of single-disturbance excitations in such sensitivity studies emerged.