Whole-Body Vibration Experienced by Pilots, Passengers and Crew in Fixed-Wing Aircraft: A State-of-the-Science Review

Abstract

Before the coronavirus pandemic, there were 4.5 billion passenger movements by aircraft annually; this is expected to recover after the pandemic. Despite the large numbers of flights per year, there are few reports of whole-body vibration in fixed-wing aircraft. This paper reports a review of literature intended to collate reported data related to exposure to whole-body vibration. Following a filtering process to select relevant articles, a literature search elicited 26 papers reporting measurements of vibration. These included measurements made in the cockpit and cabin, and for pilots, crew and passengers. Aircraft included military, commercial and passenger aircraft, turboprops, jets and piston prop aircraft. There was a lack of consistency on measurement method and analysis, and few met the full requirements of ISO 2631-1. However, measurements showed significant components of vibration at frequencies largely attenuated by the ISO frequency weighting filters, but have been shown to be important in terms of human vibration perception. Propeller aircraft showed strong tonal components in vibration frequency spectra. There was also a significant effect of the flight phase in the vibration exposure. It is recommended that the body of literature related to human response to whole-body vibration on aircraft is augmented with further studies in order to understand in-flight experiences and to optimize human health, wellbeing, comfort and performance.

Influence of the Thermal Environment on Occupational Health and Safety in Automotive Industry: A Case Study

“…Moreover, the potential negative synergic effects of thermal stress exposure and other types of occupational risks should be considered. Thus, a work environment temperature that is too low or too high reduces the worker’s resilience to neuropsychic effort in workplaces requiring mental load at a high level or could affect human comfort perception in the context of whole-body vibration [ 23 , 24 , 25 , 35 ], and the combined effects of hand-arm vibration and low temperature might lead to occupational hazards such as vibration-induced white finger syndrome (Raynaud’s syndrome) in workers [ 36 , 37 ]. Moreover, the impact of the thermal environment may, for example, vary according to a number of individual characteristics of the subjects, such as age, gender, fitness, medical conditions, etc.…”

Unwanted Supplementary Vibrations of Helicopter Radio Communication Systems

“…The force rotating in the plane of rotation of the helicopter blades causes bending vibrations of the fuselage in the vertical plane and bending-torsional, i.e., transverse vibrations, in which the helicopter fuselage bends in the horizontal plane and twists around its longitudinal axis. These forces act on the antenna's moment attachment and other helicopter systems attached to the fuselage [2][3][4][5][13][14][15][16].…”

“…As the number of rotor blades increases, the number of transient harmonics increases in accordance with the addition rules. In general, their value decreases as the number of rotor blades increases [14,15].…”

“…Quasi-harmonic vibrations are produced when a random broadband vibration (for example, from helicopter engines) is applied to an oscillating system formed by a helicopter structure as a model of a singledegree-of-freedom system with damping. This is subsequently partially transferred to the helicopter's antenna elements, which are loaded by mechanical manifestations of vibrations from the helicopter's structural elements [11][12][13][14][15][16].…”

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