APPARENT MASS AND ABSORBED POWER DURING EXPOSURE TO WHOLE-BODY VIBRATION AND REPEATED SHOCKS

Exposure to mechanical shocks might pose a greater health risk than exposure to continuous vibration. Previous studies have investigated subjective responses, muscle activity or transmission of vibration to the spine or head during shock. If there is a difference between biomechanic responses of the seated body to shocks when compared to continuous vibration, then this may indicate a more, or less, hazardous vibration waveform. This paper presents measurements of apparent mass and absorbed power during exposure to random vibration, repeated shocks and combinations of shocks and random vibration. Eleven male and 13 female subjects were exposed to 15 vibration conditions generated using an electro-dynamic shaker. Subjects were exposed to five 20 s acceleration waveforms with nominally identical power spectra (random vibration, equally spaced shocks, unequally spaced shocks, random combined with equally spaced shocks, random combined with unequally spaced shocks) at each of 0·5, 1·0 and 1·5 m/s2r.m.s. The general shapes of the apparent mass or absorbed power curves were not affected by stimulus type, indicating that the biomechanical response of the body is fundamentally the same when exposed to shocks or random vibration. Two non-linear effects were observed: apparent mass resonance frequencies were slightly higher for exposure to shocks; apparent mass and absorbed power resonance frequencies decreased with increases in vibration magnitude for each stimulus type. It is concluded that the two non-linear mechanisms operate simultaneously: a stiffening effect during exposure to shocks and a softening effect as vibration magnitudes increase. Total absorbed powers were greatest for shock stimuli and least for random vibration.