The use of seat effective amplitude transmissibility (SEAT) values to predict dynamic seat comfort

The Seat Effective Amplitude Transmissibility (SEAT) value is the ratio of the vibration experienced on top of the seat and the vibration that one would be exposed to when sitting directly on the vibrating floor. SEAT values have been widely used to determine the vibration isolation efficiency of a seat. In this article the subjective evaluations of six persons were compared to the SEAT values estimated from experimentally obtained transmissibility curves for 16 different automobile seats ranging from sedans to SUVs and pickups. A vertical rough road stimulus was used as input for both the subjective testing and the SEAT calculations. The SEAT values were estimated using the power spectral density of the vertical vibration input at the seat track and the measured transmissibility data to compute the response in the vertical direction at the seat top. The averaged, estimated SEAT values were compared to averaged measured values and significant correlation (R²=0.94) was obtained. The subjective ratings were obtained on the Ford Vehicle Vibration Simulator using a paired comparison methodology that eliminated static comfort bias during the evaluation. The results indicated that there is good correlation (R²=0.94) between the subjective ratings and the SEAT values when the subjective ratings and transmissibilities are averaged over the six subjects.