Replication of Accelerations of Single Obstacle Crossings in a Comfort-Simulator

Several factors are influencing the comfort in passenger cars, some of them belong to vibrations which exert upon the passenger. Usually, typical point of contacts for transmission of the vibrations are considered, i.e. the seat, the driver footwell and the steering wheel. The vibrations are induced from the car itself and from external sources, where uneven roads are on the most important ones. The focus in the paper are vibrations induced by crossing single obstacles. These vibrations are integrated in a driving simulator (hexapod- and viewing-system) by means of additional electrodynamic shakers. The shakers are responsible for the frequency range from 13 Hz to 80 Hz, the hexapod-system partially for frequencies lower than 13 Hz. The system is tested by implementing measured oscillations from a passenger car crossing single obstacles. These real-life oscillations are evaluated on the one hand by a professional test driver in the real car, and on the other hand by drivers (with no special experiences in evaluating comfort in passenger cars) in the extended driving simulator. The results of the evaluations are compared and show good correlations.