Title: Advanced seating comfort: suppression of vibration using multi-mode piezoelectric shunt damping

Authors: Neng Zhang; Mohammad Fard; John Laurence Davy; John Sabu; Kazuhito Kato

Addresses: School of Engineering, RMIT University, 264 Plenty Rd., Mill Park VIC 3082, Australia ' School of Engineering, RMIT University, 264 Plenty Rd., Mill Park VIC 3082, Australia ' School of Science, RMIT University, 124 La Trobe St., Melbourne VIC 3000, Australia ' School of Engineering, RMIT University, 264 Plenty Rd., Mill Park VIC 3082, Australia ' Seating Division, Development Department, NHK Spring Co., Ltd., 3-10 Fukuura Kanazawa-ku, Yokohama, 236-0004, Japan

Abstract: The transmission of seat structural vibration to the human body contributes to vibration discomfort particularly near the resonant frequencies (> 10 Hz). The conventional methods of controlling vehicle seat vibration may no longer be used on lightweight seat structures efficiently. Here, a new control method derived from multi-mode shunt damping using piezoelectric patches is proposed and is implemented on a vehicle seat to suppress the transmission of seat vibration to the occupant's body by controlling the seat foam vibration. The results indicate that the proposed method is effective for controlling seat vibration at the resonant frequencies of the seat. The application of the piezoelectric shunt damping system holds some promise for the future development of lightweight vehicle seats with enhanced ride comfort.

Keywords: PZT; shunt damping; vibration control; vehicle seat; resonant frequency.

DOI: 10.1504/IJVNV.2021.123443

International Journal of Vehicle Noise and Vibration, 2021 Vol.17 No.3/4, pp.221 - 236

Received: 13 Jul 2021
Accepted: 16 Dec 2021
Published online: 20 Jun 2022 *

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