Analysis of the Dynamics of the Seats for High-speed Trains

The authors encountered a phenomenon where high-speed running caused high-frequency vibration to occur on the car floor and be transmitted to the seats in running tests using the FASTECH360S Shinkansen high-speed test train. Such transmission affects ride comfort for seated passengers. The authors measured seat vibration in oscillation tests and in high speed running tests using a shaking table to identify the vibration characteristics of the seat. Those tests clarified that back-and-forth vibration of backrests noted in running tests was due to natural seat vibration excited by floor vibration caused by wheel imbalance. The authors built a dynamic seat model to study methods of designing seats that control uncomfortable vibration. Using this model, the authors were able to reproduce seat vibration by numerical simulation.