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Comfort Congress 2021
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Comfort Congress 2021

A special issue of Applied Sciences (ISSN 2076-3417). This special issue belongs to the section "Mechanical Engineering".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 September 2022) | Viewed by 15037

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Yu Song

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Associate Professor, Industrial Design Engineering, Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands
Interests: digital twin of humans; 3D scanning
Prof. Dr. Neil Mansfield

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Engineering, School of Science and Technology, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham NG11 8NS, UK
Interests: design engineering and human factors

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Comfort research has evolved radically since the last Comfort Congress 2019. Who could have predicted the enormous change in the numbers and behaviour of air passengers, or the shift to home working, or the preoccupation with the comfort of face coverings? At Comfort Congress 2021, which was held on 2–3 September, we heard about the latest work being carried out in comfort research and had cross-sector discussion with industry and academic researchers on a variety of comfort research topics. We also had a splendid virtual tour of the engineering laboratories at Nottingham Trent University.

This Special Issue of Applied Sciences on “Comfort Congress 2021” aims to harvest the state of the science on the knowledge of human comfort. It aims to include a cross-section of human-centred research including thermal, pressure perception, wellbeing, noise, motion and vibration, as well as application-driven research focusing on clothing, seating design, road rail air and marine vehicles, futurism, and industrial and passenger transport.

Dr. Yu Song
Prof. Dr. Neil Mansfield
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Applied Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

14 pages, 4020 KiB  
Article
Pressure Sensitivity of Buttock and Thigh as a Key Factor for Understanding of Sitting Comfort
by Akinari Hirao, Shimpei Naito and Nobutoshi Yamazaki
Appl. Sci. 2022, 12(15), 7363; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/app12157363 - 22 Jul 2022
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1404
Abstract
In seating comfort research, it is known that the pressure should not exceed a certain threshold from the viewpoint of tissue compression and should be widely distributed. However, its ideal distribution is not defined in past research. It is also known that the [...] Read more.
In seating comfort research, it is known that the pressure should not exceed a certain threshold from the viewpoint of tissue compression and should be widely distributed. However, its ideal distribution is not defined in past research. It is also known that the comfortable pressure distribution is not always constant and has individual differences. It is assumed that this is due to the influence of individual differences in body shape, such as skeletal shape and flesh of the seated person, and individual differences in sitting posture, but the mechanism has not been clarified by analyses including these factors. From the above, it is considered that the comfortable pressure distribution cannot be explained only by the mechanical state. In this study, we focused on the pressure sensitivity of thighs and buttocks and performed an analysis assuming seating in an automobile seat. We determined the exponent of Steven’s power law for seat pressure by measuring local perceived pressure load that felt the same pressure feeling at the reference load point, and the sensitivity distribution of 29 participants were measured and classified them into 4 types. The comfortable pressure distribution of five participants was measured using the experimental seat and converted into a perceived pressure distribution using the sensitivity distribution. The results show measured pressure distribution is not the same as perceived. Analysis of the perceived pressure distribution suggests that the comfortable perceived pressure distribution is a uniform distribution that falls within a certain range for the minimum pressure. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Comfort Congress 2021)
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9 pages, 1773 KiB  
Article
Simulating 3D Human Postural Stabilization in Vibration and Dynamic Driving
by Mojtaba Mirakhorlo, Nick Kluft, Raj Desai, Marko Cvetković, Tugrul Irmak, Barys Shyrokau and Riender Happee
Appl. Sci. 2022, 12(13), 6657; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/app12136657 - 30 Jun 2022
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1332
Abstract
In future automated vehicles we will often engage in non-driving tasks and will not watch the road. This will affect postural stabilization and may elicit discomfort or even motion sickness in dynamic driving. Future vehicles will accommodate this with properly designed seats and [...] Read more.
In future automated vehicles we will often engage in non-driving tasks and will not watch the road. This will affect postural stabilization and may elicit discomfort or even motion sickness in dynamic driving. Future vehicles will accommodate this with properly designed seats and interiors, whereas comfortable vehicle motion will be achieved with smooth driving styles and well-designed (active) suspensions. To support research and development in dynamic comfort, this paper presents the validation of a multi-segment full-body human model, including visuo-vestibular and muscle spindle feedback, for postural stabilization. Dynamic driving is evaluated using a “sickening drive”, including a 0.2 Hz 4 m/s2 slalom. Vibration transmission is evaluated with compliant automotive seats, applying 3D platform motion and evaluating 3D translation and rotation of pelvis, trunk and head. The model matches human motion in dynamic driving and reproduces fore–aft, lateral and vertical oscillations. Visuo-vestibular and muscle spindle feedback are shown to be essential, in particular, for head–neck stabilization. Active leg muscle control at the hips and knees is shown to be essential to stabilize the trunk in the high-amplitude slalom condition but not with low-amplitude horizontal vibrations. However, active leg muscle control can strongly affect 4–6 Hz vertical vibration transmission. Compared to the vibration tests, the dynamic driving tests show enlarged postural control gains to minimize trunk and head roll and pitch and to align head yaw with driving direction. Human modelling can enable the insights required to achieve breakthrough comfort enhancements, while enabling efficient developments for a wide range of driving conditions, body sizes and other factors. Hence, modelling human postural control can accelerate the innovation of seats and vehicle motion-control strategies for (automated) vehicles. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Comfort Congress 2021)
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16 pages, 3943 KiB  
Article
Automotive Seat Comfort and Vibration Performance Evaluation in Dynamic Settings
by Wu Pan-Zagorski, Peter W. Johnson, Missy Pereny and Jeong Ho Kim
Appl. Sci. 2022, 12(8), 4033; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/app12084033 - 16 Apr 2022
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 4279
Abstract
An automotive seat is a key component which not only provides restraint and support for its occupant, but also mitigates vibration. Since an automotive seat is in constant contact with the vehicle occupant, its dynamic comfort is of great importance in automotive seat [...] Read more.
An automotive seat is a key component which not only provides restraint and support for its occupant, but also mitigates vibration. Since an automotive seat is in constant contact with the vehicle occupant, its dynamic comfort is of great importance in automotive seat designs. In this study, three automotive seats with different foam firmnesses were evaluated to understand how the foam firmness, through different foam formulations, affected the seat vibration performance and perceived dynamic comfort in a laboratory (study 1) and field setting (study 2). In a repeated-measures laboratory based study, whole-body vibration (per ISO 2631-1), self-reported body discomfort, and seating comfort were measured and compared among the three automotive seats while participants were exposed to tri-axial, field-measured, automotive vibration and X-Y-Z axis 1–30 Hz sine sweeps. In a subsequent ride-and-drive field study, the two seats that received the highest comfort ratings from the laboratory study were installed in two identical vehicles and whole body vibration (WBV) and self-reported seating comfort were evaluated by the participants. The results showed that the foam firmness significantly affected WBV measures and self-reported comfort (p < 0.05). This study demonstrated that altering foam formulation can be an effective way of further improving dynamic vibration and seat comfort performance. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Comfort Congress 2021)
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19 pages, 7185 KiB  
Article
Analysis of the Motion Sickness and the Lack of Comfort in Car Passengers
by Estibaliz Asua, Jon Gutiérrez-Zaballa, Oscar Mata-Carballeira, Jon Ander Ruiz and Inés del Campo
Appl. Sci. 2022, 12(8), 3717; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/app12083717 - 07 Apr 2022
Cited by 9 | Viewed by 3199
Abstract
Advanced driving assistance systems (ADAS) are primarily designed to increase driving safety and reduce traffic congestion without paying too much attention to passenger comfort or motion sickness. However, in view of autonomous cars, and taking into account that the lack of comfort and [...] Read more.
Advanced driving assistance systems (ADAS) are primarily designed to increase driving safety and reduce traffic congestion without paying too much attention to passenger comfort or motion sickness. However, in view of autonomous cars, and taking into account that the lack of comfort and motion sickness increase in passengers, analysis from a comfort perspective is essential in the future car investigation. The aim of this work is to study in detail how passenger’s comfort evaluation parameters vary depending on the driving style, car or road. The database used has been developed by compiling the accelerations suffered by passengers when three drivers cruise two different vehicles on different types of routes. In order to evaluate both comfort and motion sickness, first, the numerical values of the main comfort evaluation variables reported in the literature have been analyzed. Moreover, a complementary statistical analysis of probability density and a power spectral analysis are performed. Finally, quantitative results are compared with passenger qualitative feedback. The results show the high dependence of comfort evaluation variables’ value with the road type. In addition, it has been demonstrated that the driving style and vehicle dynamics amplify or attenuate those values. Additionally, it has been demonstrated that contributions from longitudinal and lateral accelerations have a much greater effect in the lack of comfort than vertical ones. Finally, based on the concrete results obtained, a new experimental campaign is proposed. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Comfort Congress 2021)
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12 pages, 2667 KiB  
Article
Assessing Car Seat Posture through Comfort and User Experience
by Irene Caballero-Bruno, Daniel Töpfer, Thomas Wohllebe and Pedro M. Hernández-Castellano
Appl. Sci. 2022, 12(7), 3376; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/app12073376 - 26 Mar 2022
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 3411
Abstract
The vehicular market is undergoing a profound transformation that includes a trend toward fully automated driving. When travelling in automated systems, the main task is no longer driving. Therefore, the interior design of automated vehicles requires a renovation to adapt to new use [...] Read more.
The vehicular market is undergoing a profound transformation that includes a trend toward fully automated driving. When travelling in automated systems, the main task is no longer driving. Therefore, the interior design of automated vehicles requires a renovation to adapt to new use cases. With this motivation, the use case of sleeping while travelling was chosen for this user study, in which different seat configuration conditions were evaluated. The three preselected seat positions for this research included the upright, reclined and flat seat positions. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first to examine the comfort of different seat angles in meeting the need to sleep in a moving vehicle. Since the physical experience of the occupants with a high-fidelity seat prototype is essential to evaluate the new interior concept of the vehicle of the future, in this study, the experimental participants were asked about their perception of comfort and overall user experience while travelling by car under close-to-real test conditions. Therefore, the primary objective of this evaluation was to explore different seat configurations and find the most suitable seat position for the use case of sleeping in a car while moving. Our findings suggest that users prefer reclining and flat seats in short-/medium- and long-term use cases, respectively. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Comfort Congress 2021)
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